Mars Pathfinder Mission
Clouds Over Mars

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Clouds Over Mars
DateJuly 29, 1997
MediumChromogenic print
DimensionsImage: 13 5/16 × 13 3/4 in. (33.8 × 34.9 cm)
Sheet: 15 3/16 × 15 5/8 in. (38.6 × 39.6 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by friends of Tim Sargent in honor of his stubborn, unabashed, and fearless quest to conquer space from his own backyard; The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.3104
Non exposé

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Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

While
photographers had to improvise to include clouds in their views for most of the
19th century, by the late 20th century it was possible for robotic cameras to
successfully record these weather patterns—all without direct human contact.
Landing on July 4, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder was
a spacecraft sent by NASA to explore the red planet. Its six-wheeled robotic
rover, Sojourner, helped analyze the climate and geology of Mars and conduct
experiments with its atmosphere and soil composition. As in the survey expeditions
in the American West of the 1860s and 1870s, photography played a vital role in
this massive effort to gather data about an unknown land. Sojourner was
equipped with a camera on an expandable pole that sent images of Mars back to Earth.
This view of the Martian sky
shows stratus clouds, consisting of ice condensed on
reddish dust particles, suspended low in the atmosphere.




Provenance[Manfred Heiting, Malibu, California]; purchased by MFAH, 2002.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Stamped in black, verso, lower right, in a circle: "THE MARS EDITION / Center for Creative Photography / 1998-99 / 18 of 100 / © NASA/JPL/CalTech"

Inscribed in black, verso, lower right: "Clouds Over Mars! / July 29, 1997"
The photograph is unsigned.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.

Panoramic View of the Landing Site from Sagan Memorial Station
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Pathfinder on Mars
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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