The rover's mission was to collect data for scientific study and test NASA's new technology . The rover was expected to operate for only a week before running out of power. Instead, the rover traversed the rock-strewn terrain of Mars' surface 12 times longer than planned. That's the reason it was called the Little Rover that Could . Pathfinder's lander had operated nearly three times its expected lifetime of 30 days.
Engineers suspect that contact was lost because the spacecraft was literally frozen into silence.
Attempts will be made from time to time to re-establish contact with Pathfinder, but even if that fails, the overall mission was regarded as a stunning scientific and engineering success. Since its landing, the Mars Pathfinder has returned 2.6 billion bits of information, including more than 16,000 images from the lander and 550 from the rover, more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks, and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.