Web Wanderings: Mars Pathfinder

Multispectral Imaging from Mars Pathfinder

The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was a mast-mounted instrument on the Mars Pathfinder lander which landed on Mars’ Ares Vallis floodplain on July 4, 1997. During the 83 sols of Mars Pathfinders landed operations, the IMP collected over 16,600 images. Multispectral images were collected using twelve narrowband filters at wavelengths between 400 and 1000 nm in the visible and near infrared (V...

Results from the Mars Pathfinder camera.

Images of the martian surface returned by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) show a complex surface of ridges and troughs covered by rocks that have been transported and modified by fluvial, aeolian, and impact processes. Analysis of the spectral signatures in the scene (at 440- to 1000-nanometer wavelength) reveal three types of rock and four classes of soil. Upward-looking IMP images of the...

Streamlined Design Approach Lands Mars Pathfinder

ded systems software for planetary space exploration. The high degree of reliability, autonomy, and flexibility these systems require, combined with demanding mission requirements and the high cost of failure, place extraordinary demands on the systems produced. In September 1993, we began our attempt at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to land a spacecraft on the planet Mars. This spacecraft, Mar...

Dust devils as observed by Mars Pathfinder

[1] Dust devils are localized meteorological phenomena frequently observed in terrestrial dry lands and desert landscapes as well as on Mars. They are low-pressure, warm core vortices that form at the bottom of convective plumes and loft dust from the surface. They move with the speed of the ambient wind and are tilted by wind shears. The Mars Pathfinder detected dust devils as dust plumes in t...

Assessment of Mars Pathfinder Landing Site Predictions