Mars Picture of the Day: Grooved Herschel Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-335, 19 April 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
portrays the dark, somewhat cemented, wind-scoured sand dunes of central
Herschel Crater.
The picture covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi)
wide near
15.7°S, 228.8°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
upper left.

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.