NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Apsus Vallis Region

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-734, 22 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows light-toned, windblown ripples on the floors
of channels of the Apsus Vallis system. The fluid responsible
for forming the valleys is unknown; it might have been water.
No primary landforms, other than the channels themselves,
have been preserved in a way that would indicate the nature
of the fluid that carved the valleys. Apsus Vallis is located
just west of the Elysium volcanic region; the area in the
picture is located
near 35.5°N, 225.6°W. The image covers
an area about 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.