NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ganges Rocks and Sand

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-974, 17 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

The top half of
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows wind-eroded remnants of sedimentary rock outcrops
in Ganges Chasma, one of the
troughs of the Valles Marineris system. The lower half shows
a thick accumulation of dark, windblown sand.
The image covers an area about
3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the
upper left. These features are located
near 7.6°S, 49.4°W.

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.