PIA00776: Airbag Roll Marks & Displaced Rocks and Soil
 Target Name:  Mars
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Mars Pathfinder (MPF)
 Spacecraft:  Mars Pathfinder Lander
 Instrument:  Imager for Mars Pathfinder 
 Product Size:  1532 x 1395 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Producer ID:  P49026 MRPS81992
 Addition Date:  1997-07-22
 Primary Data Set:  MARS_PATHFINDER_PAGE
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA00776.tif (5.864 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA00776.jpg (351.9 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

Looking southwest from the lander, soil disturbances indicating the spacecraft rolled through the landing site are visible. Arriving from the east, the lander, still encased in its protective airbags, rolled up a slight rise and then rolled back down to its final position. The inset at left shows displaced rocks near the rock "Flat Top." Dark patches of disturbed soil indicate where the rocks had originally rested Both insets show rocks that were pushed into the soil from the weight of the lander, visible from the areas of raised rims of dark, disturbed soil around several rocks. The south summit of Twin Peaks is in the background, while a lander petal, deflated airbag, and rear rover deployment ramp are in the foreground.

Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator. JPL is an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Photojournal note: Sojourner spent 83 days of a planned seven-day mission exploring the Martian terrain, acquiring images, and taking chemical, atmospheric and other measurements. The final data transmission received from Pathfinder was at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Although mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, the successful mission was terminated on March 10, 1998.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL

Image Addition Date:
1997-07-22