Spacecraft Classification
Lander Spacecraft
Pathfinder Spacecraft
PATHFINDER
Lander spacecraft are designed to reach the surface of a planet and survive long enough to telemeter data back to Earth. Examples have been the highly successful Soviet Venera landers which survived the harsh conditions on Venus while carrying out chemical composition analyses of the rocks and relaying color images, JPL's Viking landers at Mars, and the Surveyor series of landers at Earth's moon, which carried out similar experiments. The Mars Pathfinder project, which landed on Mars on July 4, 1997, was intended to be the first in a series of landers on the surface of Mars at widely distributed locations to study the planet's atmosphere, interior, and soil. The lander, carrying its own instruments, was later named the Carl Sagan Memorial Mars Station. Pathfinder also deployed a rover, Sojourner. A system of actively-cooled, long-lived Venus landers designed for seismology investigations, is being envisioned for a possible future mission.
Our prime example of the lander spacecraft category is Mars Pathfinder. Click the Pathfinder image for details of the Pathfinder spacecraft. Other examples of lander spacecraft include:
Viking Mars Landers
Venera 13 Venus Lander
Surveyor Moon Landers