At first, many people doubted that the Pathfinder mission would become a success. Most believed that the Pathfinder would never even land on the surface of "the red planet". Little did they know, that sixth months from its initial takeoff on December 04, 1996, it would land very precisely where it had been projected and planned to do so. Using solar panels as its power, it impacted the surface of mars, without going into the orbit around the planet, at a velocity of 40 mph and bounced fifty feet into the air, bouncing another f

ifteen times and rolling before coming to a complete rest. The landing site is the Ares Vallis region is at 19.33 N, 33.55 W and it was named the Sagan Memorial Station. Engineering constraints were identified; surface environments and safety considerations played a major part in the selection of this site. The Pathfinder brought back substantial information within a time frame of one month of being on the surface of Mars.

Part of NASA's Discovery Program, the spacecraft's entrance into Mars's atmosphere marked yet another leap in technology for the science world. Although the Pathfinder had it's one downfall, it was still one of the most successful missions to Mars conducted. I believe that with more advancements being made in technology and science discovery, we will have a better understanding of the planets outside of Earth. With that we will even be able to have a better knowledge of how to solve the problems on Earth that have not devised had a successful plan to solve them.

On the s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Station Engineering, Pathfinder Mission, Discovery Program, RED PLANET, NASA Pathfinder, Ares Vallis, surface mars, pathfinder mission, technology science, countless pictures, red planet,
Approximate Word count = 677
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)