Q156423

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

18 January 1909

Alternative designations

1909 FR

Observation arc

109.68 yr (40062 d)

Aphelion

3.1092 AU (465.13 Gm )

Perihelion

2.8043 AU (419.52 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.9568 AU (442.33 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.08 yr (1857.1 d )

Mean anomaly

349.034 °

Mean motion

0° 11 37.86 / day

Inclination

8.4812°

Longitude of ascending node

272.799°

Argument of perihelion

276.733°

Mean radius

14.435 ± 0.85 km

Synodic rotation period

16.608 h (0.6920 d )

Geometric albedo

0.2794 ± 0.037

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

32.403

Orbital period

1859.381282888927

via Wikidata · CC0