“In the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility-2 (SAEF-2), the petals on the Mars Pathfinder lander are being closed for flight and won’t open again until the lander has touched down on the Martian surface in July 1997. Tucked inside the compact lander are the Surveyor small rover, which will become the first vehicle to traverse the Martian surface, and the lander’s Mars Pathfinder Imager, a stereo-imaging system camera that will capture images of both the surrounding terrain as well as the rover’s excursions, and the other instrumentation and equipment. The outside of the tetrahedral-shaped lander is padded with airbags that will help cushion the lander from the impact of landing. Once assembly of the entry vehicle is complete, it will be mated to the cruise stage that will carry Pathfinder on its direct trajectory to Mars, and then to an upper stage booster. The Mars Pathfinder is slated for launch aboard a Delta II expendable launch vehicle on December 2 at the beginning of a 24-day launch period.”
