NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Transitions
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1474, 26 May 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a variety of textures observed on a dust-covered plain in the Marte Valles region of Mars. Textural variations across the scene include: areas that are littered with small impact craters, a channel-like feature that is dominated by mounds of a variety of sizes, small ripples and/or ridges, and relatively smooth, unremarkable terrain. The contact between the cratered plain and the area dominated by mounds marks one of the banks along the edge of one of the shallow valleys of the Marte Valles system. |
| Location near: 17.7°N, 175.0°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: lower left |
| Season: Northern Spring |
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.
