Q136686

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

E. Delporte

Discovery site

Uccle Obs.

Discovery date

25 August 1930

Named after

Eugène Brand , (Belgian mathematician)

Alternative designations

1930 QA

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( middle ) , Eunomia

Observation arc

82.70 yr (30,208 days)

Aphelion

3.1088 AU

Perihelion

1.9931 AU

Semi major axis

2.5510 AU

Orbital period sidereal

4.07 yr (1,488 days)

Mean anomaly

120.52 °

Mean motion

0° 14 30.84 / day

Inclination

12.735°

Longitude of ascending node

218.65°

Argument of perihelion

122.91°

Dimensions

10.110 ± 0.057 km , 10.58 km (derived) , 10.61 ± 0.7 km

Synodic rotation period

11.444 h , 11.444 h

via Wikipedia infobox