Q157742

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

M. F. Wolf

Discovery site

Heidelberg Obs.

Discovery date

10 August 1918

Named after

Character "Rosalinde" in the operetta Die Fledermaus (by Johann Strauss II )

Alternative designations

A918 PJ · 1918 EC

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( inner ) , background

Observation arc

101.46 yr (37,057 d)

Aphelion

2.8758 AU

Perihelion

2.0705 AU

Semi major axis

2.4732 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.89 yr (1,421 d)

Mean anomaly

73.490 °

Mean motion

0° 15 12.24 / day

Inclination

11.559°

Longitude of ascending node

182.26°

Argument of perihelion

121.78°

Mean diameter

18.78 ± 1.4 km 19.56 ± 0.31 km 19.618 ± 0.057 km

Synodic rotation period

16.648 ± 0.009 h

via Wikipedia infobox