NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Channel Near Olympus
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1109, 1 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a small portion of a broad, shallow channel system located on the plains northeast of Olympus Mons. Several similar valley/channel systems occur near Olympus Mons, and all of them are mysterious in terms of the nature of the fluids involved– Was it water? Lava? Mud? |
Location near: 20.8°N, 125.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Summer |
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.
