NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dark Martian Dunes
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1138, 30 June 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark, windblown sand dunes in a crater in the Hesperia region of Mars. The steepest slopes on the dunes–their slipfaces–point toward the south-southwest, indicating that the winds responsible for the dunes blew from the north-northeast (top/upper right). |
Location near: 12.4°S, 236.5°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: upper left |
Season: Southern Spring |
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.
