NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Polar Pit
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1306, 9 December 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the gullied wall of a pit in the south polar region of Mars. The dark area is a patch of windblown and wind-eroded sand. |
Location near: 71.4°S, 357.7°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
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.
