Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.). Mars Pathfinder Project.

The Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars July 4, 1997. It was the first spacecraft ever to send a rover out to independently explore the Martian landscape. Mars Pathfinder also was the second of NASA's planetary Discovery missions designed to foster low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science objectives.

The Mars Pathfinder (formerly known as the Mars Environmental Survey, or MESUR, Pathfinder) was developed by the Ames Research Center and was transferred from Ames to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1991 after which it was divided into two activities, MESUR Pathfinder and MESUR Network. The concept of a direct Earth-Mars Mission was new and the capital investment in a multi-lander network was large.

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