The NASA - Mars Pathfinder Lander obtained this view of the Surface of Mars shortly after its landing, which occurred on July, 4, 1997. This scene is litterally dominated by the presence of a large variety of Rocks, some of which, sometime afterwards, were photographed from a very close distance by the small Robotic Rover (or Probe, like someone also qualifies it) "Soujourner" (a kind of prototype of the NASA - Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity) which would have been deployed a few Soles afterwards. Two small Hills (located at approx. 19° North Lat. and 34° West Long. and, shortly after the landing, dubbed “Twin Peaks”) are well visible on the Horizon. These two Hills are about 2 Km away from the Lander and, as we have duly noticed, they are also well visible from orbit.

The NASA - Mars Pathfinder Landing Site (some time afterwards renamed Carl Sagan Memorial Station) is in a Martian Region known as Chryse Planitia, inside the Oxia Palus Quadrangle, and located approximately at the mouth of the Ares Vallis: a large Outflow Channel approx. 1500 Km long which, from the Northern Martian Highlands, empties into the Chryse Basin. Vast Floodwaters, similar to those which carved another Martian Channel named Ma'adim Vallis, poured over this site several billion years ago. The rounded Rocks visible in the foreground may have been transported and eroded during these large - and most likely catastophic - Floods and the Twin Peaks as well might have been affected by these Floodwaters.

Once again (and just out of curiosity), we like to underline and remind you the unbelievable amount of non-sense that arose out from images like this one, where many pseudo-Scientists and pseudo-Researchers (like Dr Richard Hoagland and his followers above all) thought to see and identify, among the countless Rocks visible all around the Lander, the presence of several "artifacts" which, in a VERY little time, were proven - beyond any reasonable doubt and with a VERY little effort - to be just "Ventifacts" (such as bizarre-looking Rocks sculpted by the extremely powerful - and almost constant - Martian Wind).

It is also a good thing to remind to our Readers that the same "School" (such as the Richard Hoagland's Enterprise Mission) also speculated about the possible artificial nature of the Twin Peaks. Useless to say, even this pointless allegation was (and, of course, still is) so weak, unsubstantiated and absurde, that we believe, as IPF, that it is not worthy to spend a second of time trying to discuss and investigate it.

This frame has been colorized in Natural Colors (such as the colors that a perfect human eye would actually perceive if someone were near the NASA - Mars Pathfinder Lander and then looked around and towards the Horizon and the Sky above), by using an original technique created and - in time - dramatically improved by the Lunar Explorer Italia Team.