Mars Picture of the Day: Flows on Olympus Mons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-396, 19 June 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Olympus Mons is the largest
volcano in the Solar System. While it
is considerably taller than Mount Everest,
its slopes tend to be 1° to 5°
over most of the volcano. With such low
slopes, one would not really “climb”
to the summit of Olympus Mons, one would
instead hike. This very high
resolution Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars
Orbiter Camera (MOC) view of the middle western
flank of Olympus Mons shows, however, that it would not
be an easy place to hike. The surface is rugged,
with many overlapping lava flow structures, all of
which are mantled by a thick blanket of dust and
wind-scoured sediment.
This image is near
19.9°N, 135.5°W, and
illuminated 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.