NASA Mars Image of the Day: Reull Vallis Floor

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-901, 5 November 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows the odd patterns of erosion on the floor of
Reull Vallis, a major valley system east of the Hellas
Basin in the martian southern hemisphere. Somewhat circular
features in this image may have once been meteor craters
that were eroded and deformed by erosive processes.
This image is located
near 42.1°S, 254.5°W.
The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) 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.