title: Overview of the Mars Pathfinder mission and assessment of landing site predictions.
abstract: Chemical analyses returned by Mars Pathfinder indicate that some rocks may be high in silica, implying differentiated parent materials. Rounded pebbles and cobbles and a possible conglomerate suggest fluvial processes that imply liquid water in equilibrium with the atmosphere and thus a warmer and wetter past. The moment of inertia indicates a central metallic core of 1300 to 2000 kilometers in radius. Composite airborne dust particles appear magnetized by freeze-dried maghemite stain or cement that may have been leached from crustal materials by an active hydrologic cycle. Remote-sensing data at a scale of generally greater than approximately 1 kilometer and an Earth analog correctly predicted a rocky plain safe for landing and roving with a variety of rocks deposited by catastrophic floods that are relatively dust-free.
authors.affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Golombek
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Economou
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Folkner
authors.forename: A F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Haldemann
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Kallemeyn
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Knudsen
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rieder
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Schofield
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Vaughan
mesh_terms: D001272:Atmosphere; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D008280:Magnetics; D018535:Mars; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water