Mars pathfinder was originally designed a as a technology demonstration of a way to deliver an instrumented lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. Pathfinder not only accomplished this goal but also returned and unprecedented amount of data and outlived its primary design life. . From landing until the final data transmission on September 27, 1997, Mars pathfinder returned 2.3 billion buts of information, including more than 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from the rover, as well as more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.

Mars Pathfinder

4th December, 1996