Rover, Marie Curie, Mars Pathfinder, Engineering Test Vehicle
name: label: Manufacturer
content: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
notes: label: Summary
content: Mars Pathfinder was the first spacecraft to land on the surface of the red planet since the Viking mission in 1976. It was launched on December 4, 1996. On reaching Mars on July 4, 1997, the spacecraft entered the planet's thin atmosphere, was slowed by a parachute and then rockets, and then landed by bouncing on inflated airbags. Once on the surface, the protective aeroshell unfolded to provide three flat platforms and ramps, one of which held a rover (Sojourner). The Sojourner rover traveled down one of the ramps and proceeded to take close up images of the surface using two black and white cameras on the front and a color camera on the rear. The rover also featured a rear-mounted Alpha Proton X-ray Spectrometer that provided bulk elemental composition data on surface soils and rocks.
label: Summary
content: The Marie Curie rover was the flight spare for the Sojouner rover. During Sojourner's activites on Mars, engineers operated Marie Curie in the same movements in a Mars-like test area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. For a time, NASA planned to send Marie Curie on a 2001 Mars mission, but this did not occur. Today, these two rovers--one still on Mars and its twin here--represent the first successful exploration of the Martian surface with a moving vehicle.
label: Summary
content: JPL transferred the Marie Curie rover to the Museum in 2015.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
label: Location
content: National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
label: Exhibition
content: Kenneth C. Griffin Exploring the Planets Gallery
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transferred from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A20150317000
objectType: label: Type
content: SPACECRAFT-Uncrewed
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Aluminum Alloy
label: Materials
content: Gold Plating
label: Materials
content: Kapton-like Tape
label: Materials
content: Adhesive Tape (White and Black)
label: Materials
content: GaAr/Ge Solar Cells
label: Materials
content: Electronics and Wiring
label: Materials
content: Onboard Computer
label: Materials
content: Side Color Panels
label: Materials
content: Paint
label: Materials
content: Possibly Lithium Thionyl Chloride (LiSOCl2) D-cell batteries
label: Materials
content: Antenna
label: Materials
content: RTV Rubber
label: Materials
content: Adhesives
label: Dimensions
content: 3-D (Overall): 69.8 × 44.4 × 31.7cm (2 ft. 3 1/2 in. × 1 ft. 5 1/2 in. × 1 ft. 1/2 in.)