NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Dusty Collapse Pit

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-701, 19 April 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a pit formed by collapse on the lower southeast
flank of Olympus Mons. The terrain surrounding the pit,
and the pit walls and floor, appear to be mantled by fine dust.
The image is located
near 17.2°N, 138.7°W.
The picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.