NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Intracrater Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-984, 27 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a portion of a field of dark sand dunes on
the floor of an unnamed crater in western Arabia Terra
near 7.3°N, 353.4°W. The dominant winds responsible
for the movement of sand through this system blows almost
directly north to south (top to bottom). The image covers
an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide, and is illuminated by
sunlight 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.