NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Schiaparelli cPROTO
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-995, 7 February 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image of layered sedimentary rock in a crater in northwestern Schiaparelli basin was acquired using the cPROTO technique described previously on 27 September 2004. MOC cPROTO images provide rare glimpses of the martian surface at the highest resolution ever achieved from orbit–in this case, nearly 50 centimeters (~20 inches) per pixel. The finely-layered rock shown here, and the repeated nature of the layers in the rock, are clues that these sediments may have been deposited in an intracrater lake. |
Location near: 0.2°S, 345.7°W |
150 m scale bar = ~164 yards |
Illumination from: upper right |
Season: Southern Summer |
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.
