NASA Mars Image of the Day: Impact Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-858, 23 September 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows fine details in the walls and floor of a
meteor impact crater located immediately west of the
Lycus Sulci ridged terrain, northwest of the volcano,
Olympus Mons. The walls of the crater exhibit the finely-detailed
layering of the local bedrock. This crater is centered
near 31.4°N, 147.7°W. The image
covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across
and is illuminated by sunlight 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.