NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Lava Levees
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1515, 6 July 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the remains of leveed lava channels cutting across (west to east) a dust-covered plain composed of overlapping lava flows east of Olympus Mons, a giant volcano in the Tharsis region of Mars. |
Location near: 22.3°N, 122.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Winter |
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.