Status Report

Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar Cap in Summer

By SpaceRef Editor
June 7, 2003
Filed under , , ,

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-384, 7 June 2003




NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
wide angle camera view of the martian south polar residual cap
was acquired in March 2002, at the peak of the last southern
summer. The ice at the surface of this summertime cap is mostly
composed of carbon dioxide.
The picture covers an area
about 600 km (373 mi)
wide near
90.0°S.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
lower right.
Compare the view shown here with
the appearance of the cap 1 Mars year earlier in June 2000
by visiting: MOC2-225, 27 April 2000, “South Polar Cap, Summer 2000”.


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.

SpaceRef staff editor.