Ares Vallis
Ares Vallis is an ancient flood channel where Mars Pathfinder landed in 1997 with Sojourner, the first rover on Mars. Explore the landing site in 3D.
- Location
- 19.1° N, 33.2° W, Chryse Planitia region
- Landed
- Mars Pathfinder with Sojourner, 4 July 1997
- First
- the first wheeled rover to drive on Mars
- Landscape
- a rocky outflow plain left by giant floods
Ares Vallis is one of the large outflow channels that run into Chryse Planitia. Enormous floods once poured through it, and they left behind a plain scattered with rocks carried from far away. That made it a clever landing site: a single small rover could sample many different rock types without driving far.
Mars Pathfinder landed there on 4 July 1997, bouncing to a stop inside airbags. It carried Sojourner, a microwave-oven-sized rover that became the first wheeled vehicle to drive on Mars. Sojourner stayed within about a dozen metres of the lander, but it proved that rovers could work on Mars and paved the way for every rover since.
What to look for
- Twin Peaks. Two small hills on the horizon, about a kilometre from the landing site.
- The rock garden. Boulders with names like Yogi and Barnacle Bill that Sojourner studied up close.
- Flood landscape. Streamlined hills and channels left by the water that carved Ares Vallis.
Driving Ares Vallis in Trawers
Start where Sojourner drove its first centimetres and head for the Twin Peaks. In a few minutes you will have driven farther than the first Mars rover did in its whole mission.