NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ascraeus Pits

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-988, 31 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows collapse pits on the northern flank of the giant Tharsis shield volcano, Ascraeus Mons. Details in rock and dust are seen when this image is examined at its full, 1.5 meters (5 ft) per pixel resolution. Large, dark boulders occur on the floors of some of the pits, for example. This scene is located near 13.1°N, 103.1°W. The picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the lower 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.