NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ascraeus Mons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-950, 24 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This red wide angle
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows Ascraeus Mons, the northernmost of the
three Tharsis Montes shield volcanoes. Ascraeus
Mons is about 460 km (~286 mi) across and its summit
is at an elevation of about 18 km (11 mi) above the
martian datum–the elevation designated
as 0 km. The center of the summit caldera is
near 11°N, 104°W.
Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left/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.