NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dusty Troughs

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-494, 25 September 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows dust-mantled troughs formed by faulting
on the plains northeast of the volcano, Ascraeus Mons.
The smooth areas are covered with thick accumulations
of dust, the rougher surfaces are lava flows that also
have been blanketed by dust. Thick accumulations of
dust are common throughout the Tharsis volcanic region
of Mars. This picture is located
near 8.3°N, 117.5°W, and covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi)
across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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.