Sojourner's View: The Sagan Memorial Station
Explanation:
The robot rover
Sojourner sees Mars from
the perspective of
a house cat.
During the 7 month
cruise to Mars
aboard the Pathfinder spacecraft, Sojourner measured only
seven inches tall in a stowed position but prowling the martian
landscape it has stretched to its full height of 1 foot (30 centimeters).
In this mosaic of images
Sojourner's cameras look back on its mother ship, now
the Sagan Memorial Station, which seems to loom above it.
The deployment ramp
is visible along with deflated airbags, instrumentation
masts and tracks left in the martian soil by the robot's six cleated 5-inch
aluminum wheels.
So far the rover
has been directed to analyze soil and
the composition of two rocks,
Barnacle Bill
(seen just to the right of the ramp) and Yogi.
Human operators select Sojourner's targets but
the robot rover is relied on to
navigate to its destination autonomously.
Click here to download a movie gif of Sojourner creeping toward Yogi.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
