NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Ascraeus Mons Pits

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-482, 13 September 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This August 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter
Camera (MOC) image shows a suite of collapse pits on the
northeast flank of the volcano, Ascraeus Mons. These pits
are aligned along the trend of faults that are not well
exposed at the surface; the faults are concentric to
the volcano summit.
The image is located near 13.0°N, 103.2°W.
This picture covers an area 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.