NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Degraded Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-886, 21 October 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Near the center of
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image lies the degraded remnants of an old meteor impact
crater. The terrain in which it occurs is a heavily eroded,
north middle-latitude surface. The image is located in
the fretted terrains north of Arabia Terra
near 41.3°N, 305.8°W. The image covers
an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and
sunlight illuminates the scene 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.