NASA’s space exploration mission included Mars Pathfinder which was launched in December, 1996 and created history by touching Martian soil on July, 1997. It was a technologically advanced first ever robotic rover to land on the surface of Mars and July. 2022 marked its 25 years of anniversary. Mars Pathfinder brought introduced new technologies to Mars for analyzing its atmosphere, climate change, geology, and the chemical composition of soil. Pathfinder directly entered the Martian atmosphere assisted only by a parachute for a slow descent through the thin layers of atmosphere.
Mars Pathfinder landed on the surface are now being called the Carl Sagan Memorial Station. Soon after its landing its rover named Sojourner came out and stationed itself on Mars surface.
Reports says that Mars Pathfinder transferred 2.3 billion bits of information including more than 16,500 images from the lander, 550 images from Sojourner , and 15 chemical analysis of geo-chemical composition.
Mars Pathfinder included instruments such as alpha proton X-ray Spectrometer used to determine element composition of geological components, three cameras for taking images of surrounding terrain, atmospheric structure instrument to measure the Martian atmosphere.
According to NASA the Pathfinder’s expedition of Mars’ surface resembles Earth like terrain covered with rivers and lakes. NASA started looking for traces of life on Mars’ surface since 1976.
Back in 1997 when Mars Pathfinder landed on Martian surface People from across the globe were thrilled to be able to witness such historic moment. Jessica Samuels who was an engineering intern at that time and now Perseverance’s mission manager explained, “That moment – seeing this little mechanical rover exploring the surface of another planet – made me realize that’s something I would love to do. I had always been interested in space, but that was the spark where I thought this could actually be my profession.”
Doug Ellison who uploads commands to Curiosity now was a fresher in a rural college in England said that he traveled to town on a bike to use per hour internet access and to save images returned by Pathfinder on a floppy disc. He gave a thoughtful remark about space exploration and the advent of internet saying, “Putting so much online so quickly was a paradigm shift. That’s the motivation today to share as much as we can as quickly as we can from our rover missions. I think the Mars program owes Pathfinder a debt of gratitude for being the entire stepping stone for everything since.”
The historic Mars Pathfinder found evidence of Mars bearing stable running liquid water in the past by observing rounded pebbles and cobbles; airborne dust is magnetic characterizing maghemite that is magnetic form of freeze-dried iron oxide developed from active water cycle of the past; presence of dust devils and wind gusts; presence of early morning water ice clouds in the lower atmosphere; an abrupt temperature fluctuation observed in the morning.
However, scientists at NASA remembered the time in 1997 when they were only learning to drive a rover safely on the Mars surface in comparison to today’s Mars expedition by Perseverance. Scientists said, “We were a little bit cowboyish. We just didn’t know what we didn’t know,” adding that the mission lived up to its name by creating the first pathway for humans on Mars.
