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Carl Sagan Memorial Station

Mars Pathfinder
A group of scientists, all wearing white protective clothing, gather around a spacecraft as it's being folded into its launch position; a triangular pyramid shape.
Pathfinder and Sojourner at JPL in October 1996, being 'folded' into its launch position.
Mission type Lander · Rover (Mars)
Operator NASA · Jet Propulsion Laboratory
COSPAR ID 1996-068A
SATCAT no. 24667
Website mars.nasa.gov/MPF/
Mission duration Pathfinder: 85 days
Sojourner: 7 days
Spacecraft properties
Launch mass Pathfinder: 264 kilograms (582 lb)
Sojourner: 10.5 kilograms (23 lb)
Power Pathfinder: 35 W
Sojourner: 13 W
Start of mission
Launch date December 4, 1996 (1996-12-04) 06:58:07 UTC
(21 years, 6 months and 1 day ago)
Rocket Delta II 7925 (#D240)
Launch site Cape Canaveral SLC-17
Contractor None
End of mission
Last contact September 27, 1997 (1997-09-27) 10:23 UTC
(20 years, 8 months and 9 days ago)
Mars lander
Landing date July 4, 1997 (1997-07-04) 16:56:55 UTC
(20 years, 11 months and 1 day ago)
Landing site Ares Vallis, Chryse Planitia, Mars
19°7′48″N 33°13′12″W / 19.13000°N 33.22000°W / 19.13000; -33.22000 (Sojourner rover (Mars Pathfinder))
Transponders
Band X-Band with high-gain antenna
Bandwidth 6 kb/s to 70m Deep Space Network, 250 b/s to surface command

An image inside an oval, depicting two spacecraft, one a lander, and one a rover, on the surface of Mars. The words "Mars Pathfinder" are written on the top and the words "NASA · JPL" are written on the bottom.
Official insignia of the Mars Pathfinder mission.

An image inside an oval, depicting two spacecraft, one a lander, and one a rover, on the surface of Mars. The words "Mars Pathfinder" are written on the top and the words "NASA · JPL" are written on the bottom.
Official insignia of the Mars Pathfinder mission.

Mars Pathfinder (MESUR Pathfinder) is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight (10.6 kg/23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner, which became the first rover to operate outside the Earth–Moon system.

Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, it landed on July 4, 1997 on Mars's Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia in the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander then opened, exposing the rover which conducted many experiments on the Martian surface. The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of its rocks and soil. It was the second project from NASA's Discovery Program, which promotes the use of low-cost spacecraft and frequent launches under the motto "cheaper, faster and better" promoted by the then administrator, Daniel Goldin. The mission was directed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, responsible for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. The project manager was JPL's Tony Spear.


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