NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Collapse Pit
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1235, 29 September 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel view of a large collapse pit (and portions of several smaller pits) in the Tractus Fossae portion of the Tharsis region of Mars. Such collapses usually occur along faults formed by expansion and pulling apart of the planet’s upper crust. |
Location near: 22.5°N, 101.4°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Autumn |
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.
