Mars: A Journey's End

Mars Pathfinder is nearing the end of its 7 month journey. The robot spacecraft is scheduled to use parachutes, rockets, and airbags to “bouncedown” on the red planet tomorrow - July 4th . This Hubble Space Telescope image of Mars was taken a few days ago to check on the weather. The pathfinder landing site , on the ancient floodplain Ares Vallis, is just right of center - 500 miles southeast of where Viking 1 landed in 1976. Along with the martian north polar cap , some water ice clouds are visible in both the northern and southern hemisphere . About 600 miles south of the landing site a dust storm can be seen as a brownish ribbon stretching through the the Valles Marineris, a continent sized canyon system. Fortunately, the dust storm is not expected to seriously affect operations at the landing site.