An animated look at Pathfinder's Sojourner at work on Mars

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- Scientists originally did not hold out much hope that the Pathfinder mission to Mars would yield significant scientific data, but the results of the historic space project have reshaped significantly the scientific perception of Mars.

The mission went into high gear when the space probe landed on Mars on July 4 a year ago and deployed the Sojourner rover.

"Nobody originally believed that a two-foot-long rover could actually move around on Mars at all, much less accomplish science," Donna Shirley of the Mars exploration team told CNN. "(But) there it was -- it did it."

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The amount of data collected was staggering. Project scientist Matt Golombek listed some of the key data beamed back to Earth:

• 2.3 billion bits of information about Mars,
• 8.5 million measurements of temperature and pressure,
• 16 chemical analyses of rocks, soil and surface materials and
• 16,500 pictures.

Those pictures and data now have scientists rethinking many old notions about Mars -- such as its color, for instance, which is not red but closer to butterscotch.

Evidence from Pathfinder, on the other hand, enhanced the theory that Mars was once like Earth. In other words, it could be a place where life might have started.

Sojourner (in yellow circle) takes measurements in July 1997

"That makes it a tremendously more compelling place to go study," Golombek told CNN.

"I could have spent years directing the rover at that site," Golombek said, referring to the vehicle's photographic excursions. "There were five priority things that I'd still trade an awful lot to get."

Apart from the rover's cruising in an ancient river bed of Mars, there were dunes in the distance that needed a closer look, interesting rocks that beckoned, Martian storms to witness and studies of the curious magnetic dust covering the plane to be done.

That dust also taught scientists some lessons in engineering. As mission manager Rob Manning explained, future rovers will likely be equipped with brushes so that the dust can be wiped off the rocks.

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