Q157172

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

Max Wolf

Discovery site

Heidelberg Observatory

Discovery date

20 March 1915

Alternative designations

1915 WQ; A924 OD;, 1925 RG; 1970 GS1

Observation arc

101.08 yr (36918 d)

Aphelion

2.8087 AU (420.18 Gm )

Perihelion

2.4007 AU (359.14 Gm)

Semi major axis

2.6047 AU (389.66 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

4.20 yr (1535.4 d )

Mean anomaly

47.6362 °

Mean motion

0° 14 4.056 / day

Inclination

14.130°

Longitude of ascending node

185.973°

Argument of perihelion

335.076°

Earth moid

1.41172 AU (211.190 Gm)

Jupiter moid

2.17333 AU (325.126 Gm)

Mean radius

16.615 ± 1.25 km

Synodic rotation period

23.93 h (0.997 d )

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

32.404

Orbital period

1535.783454418186

via Wikidata · CC0