NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Fresh Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-803, 30 July 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This full-resolution (1.5 meters, 5 feet, per pixel)
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a fairly small, fresh meteor impact
crater in far southeastern Arabia Terra. The crater’s
bowl, rim, and ejecta exhibit numerous boulders. The
image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is located
near 6.9°S, 317.1°W.
Sunlight illuminates the terrain from the 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.