Q581820

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

T. Smirnova

Discovery site

Crimean Astrophysical Obs.

Discovery date

30 July 1970

Named after

Nadezhda Kurchenko , (Soviet flight attendant)

Alternative designations

1970 OG · 1957 WM 1 , 1969 LC · 1979 NA

Minor planet category

main-belt · ( middle ) , background

Observation arc

60.00 yr (21,915 d)

Aphelion

3.1010 AU

Perihelion

2.4365 AU

Semi major axis

2.7687 AU

Orbital period sidereal

4.61 yr (1,683 d)

Mean anomaly

91.267 °

Mean motion

0° 12 50.04 / day

Inclination

17.486°

Longitude of ascending node

133.13°

Argument of perihelion

218.41°

Mean diameter

18.801 ± 0.264 km , 18.802 ± 0.152 km , 20.83 ± 0.70 km , 24.69 ± 7.53 km , 27.34 km (calculated)

Synodic rotation period

8.622 ± 0.0027 h

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Diameter

18.801

Orbital period

1683.781825763913

via Wikidata · CC0