NASA Mars Image of the Day: Olympus Mons Lava Flows

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-525, 26 October 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This May 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows lava flows on the lower northern flanks of the large
martian volcano, Olympus Mons. Located
near 21.9°N, 132.9°W, the image features flows that moved down
the north slope, toward the north/northeast (top/upper right). Sunlight
illuminates this scene from the left/lower left; the
picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.

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.