Mars Pathfinder

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NASA's Mars Pathfinder is an amazing robot spacecraft that landed on the Red Planet and found out some interesting things about our second-nearest neighbor in the solar system. The lander used a sophisticated system of parachutes, braking rockets and inflatable balloons to cushion its impact on the Martian surface. The landing went according to plan and the deployed lander is now referred to as the Sagan Memorial Station in memory of astronomer Carl Sagan. The base station has three petals covered with solar cells to provide electric power; these petals opened up like a flower on landing and allowed the Sojourner rover to move off a track and onto the Martian surface. Our K'nex model of the Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover is based on NASA photos researched from the Internet. This image shows the three open petals of the descent stage.