NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dunes in Brashear
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1246, 10 October 2005
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows dark, windblown sand dunes on the floor of Brashear Crater in the southern hemisphere. The dominant winds responsible for these dunes blew from the southeast (lower right). Grooves on some of the dune surfaces suggest that the sand may be somewhat cemented; the grooves form by wind erosion. |
Location near: 53.9°S, 119.6°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.
