The first wheels on Mars — a microwave-sized pioneer that started it all.
Sojourner was the first rover ever to drive on Mars, delivered by the Mars Pathfinder lander on July 4, 1997. No bigger than a microwave, it proved that a wheeled robot could explore another planet — the direct ancestor of Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity and Perseverance. You can own the historic ground where it rolled.
Own its landing site — from $29.99 →Mars Pathfinder tried a radical, cheap landing: instead of retro-rockets alone, it wrapped itself in giant airbags and bounced across the surface some 15 times before rolling to a stop. It worked — and the little Sojourner rover trundled down a ramp into history.
Sojourner was tiny and slow, never straying far from its lander, but it proved the thing that mattered: a mobile robot could survive, drive and do science on Mars. Every rover since is its descendant.
Sojourner showed that wheeled robots could operate on Mars — the foundation for every rover mission that followed.
Its measurements of rounded rocks and the Ares Vallis flood channel supported the idea that huge volumes of water once ran across Mars.