Click on thumbnail image above to see full size scan.
This image is a portion of a full-color panorama of the Mars Pathfinder landing site. This portion covers about one quarter of the surrounding "marscape" of Ares Vallis (Mars Valley). Visible next to the rock named Yogi is the rover Sojourner. She has backed up to Yogi and has placed the Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer instrument against the rock in order to determine its elemental composition. Yogi is approximately 6.5 meters (20 feet) from the Mars Pathfinder lander and stands about l meter (3 feet) high. Sojourner is 30 centimeters ( l foot) tall.
In the lower left corner of the image is the ramp that Sojourner used to roll off the lander petal and onto the Martian soil. To the right is part of the deflated airbags from the adjacent petal. Sojourner's tracks across the soil are plainly visible and are darker than the undisturbed soil. The dark streaks on the soil above the airbags were caused when the airbags were reeled in during the first hours after landing on July 4, 1997. In two locations, near the end of the ramp and on the way to Yogi, disturbed dust shows where Sojourner made pivoting turns.
A dusting of very fine-grained material is also seen on a number of the rocks in the view. Dust has gathered to the left of Barnacle Bill, the pitted football-shaped and -sized rock above the end of the ramp. The wind on Mars can carry only very lightweight and fine-grained dust_ although the wind can blow at speeds of hundreds of kilometers per hour, it does not have much force because of the thin atmosphere. (Such wind speeds have not been observed by Mars Pathfinder.) Some of the talcum powderlike dust can be seen on the rover's wheels, and suspended dust particles give the sky its color.
At one time in Mars' past, a large amount of water rushed across this area. The direction of flow was to the north, which is toward the upper right corner in this picture. The flood waters cut a series of gullies in the plain. The gullies line up in the direction of the water flow. A trek across this "marscape" toward the horizon would carry you up and down a series of hills and valleys.
On the horizon is the rock known as the Couch. Most rocks are informally named for their appearance by scientists to make them easy to identify during team meetings and public discussions. The Couch is more than 150 meters (500 feet) away. The Imager for Mars Pathfinder stereo camera, which took this image, allows team members to measure distances to about 150 meters. But they must estimate distances beyond that_unless a feature can be identified from images taken by one or both Viking orbiting spacecraft.
Viking Orbiters 1 and 2 photographed the planet between July 1976 and August 1980. Orbital views of the Mars Pathfinder landing region show two features now known as the Twin Peaks. In the upper left corner of this view is the North Peak. It is an estimated 0.86 kilometers (0.53 miles) away from the lander.
This image and additional information about the Mars Pathfinder mission can be found on the Internet at: http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov
The Mars Pathfinder mission is part of a long-term program of Mars exploration being conducted by NASA's Office of Space Science. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an operating division of the Calitornia Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Program tor NASA.
Return to Mars Pathfinder Lithograph Set Main Menu