Iconic Space Images #12
Presidential Panorama was taken on Mars as a gift to the then President Bill Clinton
This image was taken by the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997. It shows the Sojourner rover (near the center big rock) and a full 360 degrees view from the Pathfinder base station called Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
The Pathfinder mission had the next successful landing after the early Viking missions, and Sojourner’s exploration of rocks led to scientists naming these rocks after different cartoon characters, like Yogi Bear and Scooby Doo.
Pathfinder sent back nearly 16,500 images of Mars and analysed its magnetic field. The Sojourner rover analysed rock samples.
The base station is now dead, while it is suspected that Sojourner has lost communication with us due to dust covering its solar panels. It is unknown whether the rover can communicate again.
