NASA Mars Picture opf the Day: Valles Marineris Features

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-882, 17 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows light-toned, ripple-like, windblown bedforms
and ridges with dark talus accumulations on their slopes
in the western portion of the vast Valles Marineris trough
system. These features are located near Oudemans Crater
around 7.6°S, 91.2°W. The image covers
an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and
sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left.

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology
built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.
MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Surveyor Operations Project
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena,
California and Denver, Colorado.