NASA's Sojourner excavations brought materials to the surface for examination and allowed estimates of the mechanical properties of the deposits. This image is of a 7 cm wide excavation through the veneer of a drift. Sol 1 began on July 4, 1997.

January 07, 1998

Sojourner's excavations brought materials to the surface for examination and allowed estimates of the mechanical properties of the deposits.

This image is of a 7 cm wide excavation through the veneer of a drift. The platy fragment or piece of crust (upper right) was displaced by the rover wheel.

NOTE: original caption as published in Science magazine

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. JPL is a 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.

Credits

NASA/JPL

ENLARGE

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