Q302333

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

C. U. Cesco

Discovery site

El Leoncito , (Yale–Columbia Station)

Discovery date

24 September 1970

Named after

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar , (astrophysicist)

Alternative designations

1970 SB · 1947 HD, 1959 RG 1 · 1965 UN, 1971 XA

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( outer )

Observation arc

62.66 yr (22,887 days)

Aphelion

3.6220 AU

Perihelion

2.5840 AU

Semi major axis

3.1030 AU

Orbital period sidereal

5.47 yr (1,997 days)

Mean anomaly

233.69 °

Mean motion

0° 10 49.08 / day

Inclination

10.559°

Longitude of ascending node

345.04°

Argument of perihelion

318.95°

Dimensions

33.82 km (derived) , 34.278 ± 0.220 , 36.167 ± 0.349 km

Synodic rotation period

7.0571 ± 0.0029 h , 7.070 ± 0.004 h

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

34.278

Orbital period

1999.091869794308

Image

001958-asteroid shape model (1958) Chandra.png

via Wikidata · CC0