NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Exposed Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-785, 12 July 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Wind erosion has created yardang ridges and revealed the
location of a formerly-buried meteor crater (see lower left
corner) in
this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image. This scene is located in the Apollinaris Sulci region
near 11.4°S, 181.6°W, and
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates
the landforms from the left/upper 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.