Q156378

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

August Kopff

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

20 August 1908

Alternative designations

1908 DR

Observation arc

108.91 yr (39781 d)

Aphelion

3.3465 AU (500.63 Gm )

Perihelion

2.2587 AU (337.90 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.8026 AU (419.26 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.69 yr (1713.7 d )

Mean anomaly

333.660 °

Mean motion

0° 12 36.252 / day

Inclination

7.5354°

Longitude of ascending node

174.687°

Argument of perihelion

195.276°

Mean radius

17.035 ± 0.65 km

Synodic rotation period

10.045 h (0.4185 d )

Geometric albedo

0.1830 ± 0.015

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

35.886

Orbital period

1715.571083213667

via Wikidata · CC0