Mars Picture of the Day: Utopia Cracks and Polygons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-339, 23 April 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image
shows a pattern of polygonal cracks and aligned, elliptical
pits in western Utopia Planitia.
The picture covers an area
about 3 km (about 1.9 mi)
wide near
44.9°N, 274.7°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the
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.