On this day in 1996, NASA launched the unmanned rover Mars Pathfinder from its launch facility in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The spacecraft was used to demonstrate new landing technologies on the surface of Mars and how to build more cost-effective planetary exploration tools.
It arrived on the red planet seven months after launch. NASA used it to test a novel landing approach: After being slowed by its heat shield, parachute and rockets, it touched down by bouncing on a bunch of inflated airbags to soften the impact.
Once the lander, well, landed, it released a rover. Pathfinder was then in two parts, each with its own name. The lander itself was titled the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and the rover named Sojourner after famed civil rights advocate Sojourner Truth.
Sojourner used two cameras to navigate the surface and a separate color camera to photograph the planet. It also came with tools to measure the composition of the rocks and soil beneath it.
For a few months, Sojourner kept collecting samples and shooting photos, which numbered 550 by the end of the trip. The lander, also equipped with cameras, sent back 16,500 images, many of which showed the rover going about its work. The last Pathfinder transmission was sent Sept. 27, 1997.
You can learn more about Mars Pathfinder on the NASA website.
