Mars Picture of the Day: Ridges and Sand Dunes
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-369, 23 May 2003
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
Dark, windblown sand dunes have over-ridden a suite of low,
somewhat rectilinear ridges on the floor of an impact
crater near 36.5°S, 219.0° W,
in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image acquired in May 2003.
The dune field is located in Terra Cimmeria. The image
is 1.2 km (3/4 mile) wide; 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.
