Mars Picture of the Day: Butte-ification
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1517, 8 July 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows layered, light-toned exposures of probable sedimentary rock in Iani Chaos. Near the right (east) edge of the scene are relatively small, remnant buttes and mesas composed of the light-toned rock which makes up the large plateau on the west edge of the image. |
| Location near: 1.6°S, 18.4°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern Autumn |
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.
