July four, 1997: Sojourner Arrives on the Purple Planet
From NASA Historical past
July 1, 2020
Hitching a experience on the Mars Pathfinder mission, the Sojourner rover arrived on the Purple Planet on July four, 1997. The mission was designed to exhibit a low-cost methodology for delivering a set of science devices to Mars, and served as the inspiration for the Mars rovers of at present.
Pathfinder landed the rover utilizing an air bag touchdown system and revolutionary petal design, which have been used since in varied incarnations to land different rovers on the Purple Planet. Sojourner spent 83 days of a deliberate seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, snapping pictures and taking chemical, atmospheric and different measurements.
The lander, formally named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station following its profitable landing, and the rover, named after civil rights pioneer Sojourner Reality, each outlived their design lives — the lander by practically 3 times, and the rover by 12 occasions. Mars Pathfinder returned 2.three billion bits of knowledge, together with greater than 16,500 pictures from the lander and 550 pictures from the rover, in addition to greater than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and in depth knowledge on winds and different climate elements.
This panoramic view of Pathfinder’s Ares Vallis touchdown website reveals Sojourner rover is the gap. The Mars Pathfinder mission accomplished the final profitable knowledge transmission cycle at 6:23 a.m. EDT on Sept. 27, 1997.
Picture Credit score: NASA/JPL
Final Up to date: July 2, 2020
Editor: Yvette Smith
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July four, 2020 in NASA. Tags: Mars Pathfinder, NASA Historical past, Sojourner