Q136222

Picture of the Day · NASA

Pathfinder on Mars

2026-07-04

On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.

via NASA APOD

Key facts

Discovered by

S. Arend

Discovery site

Uccle Obs.

Discovery date

13 January 1929

Named after

"Mimi" Delporte, (wife of Eugène Delporte )

Alternative designations

1929 AJ · 1948 PU, A906 OA

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( middle ) background

Observation arc

87.10 yr (31,812 days)

Aphelion

3.2821 AU

Perihelion

1.9104 AU

Semi major axis

2.5962 AU

Orbital period sidereal

4.18 yr (1,528 days)

Mean anomaly

122.26 °

Mean motion

0° 14 8.16 / day

Inclination

14.745°

Longitude of ascending node

128.63°

Argument of perihelion

281.95°

Mean diameter

46.006 ± 0.305 km , 46.18 ± 10.10 km , 46.84 ± 4.9 km , 48.198 ± 0.465 km , 49.53 ± 0.67 km , 50.67 ± 13.81 km

Synodic rotation period

8.5410 ± 0.0004 h , 8.541 ± 0.1 h , 12.749 ± 0.003 h

via Wikipedia infobox