Mars Pathfinder was originally designed as a technology demonstration of a way to deliver an instrumented lander and a free-ranging robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. It was intended as a precursor to a network of landers called MESUR. The MESUR Network missions were never funded, but the Pathfinder project continued. Mars Pathfinder used an innovative method of directly entering the Martian atmosphere, assisted by a parachute to slow its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere and a system of giant airbags to cushion the impact. From landing until the final datta transmission on September 27, 1997, Mars Pathfinder returned 2.3 billion bits of information.