Q158471

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

K. Reinmuth

Discovery site

Heidelberg Obs.

Discovery date

14 October 1922

Named after

A girl's name picked from a, popular German calendar

Alternative designations

1922 MO

Minor planet category

Mars crosser

Observation arc

94.37 yr (34,467 days)

Aphelion

2.9380 AU

Perihelion

1.6604 AU

Semi major axis

2.2992 AU

Orbital period sidereal

3.49 yr (1,273 days)

Mean anomaly

92.838 °

Mean motion

0° 16 57.72 / day

Inclination

4.0564°

Longitude of ascending node

290.33°

Argument of perihelion

59.636°

Earth moid

0.6583 AU · 256.5 LD

Dimensions

8.18 km (calculated)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Orbital period

1273.257684568584

via Wikidata · CC0