NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Gullies and Sand

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-941, 15 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows gullies running down a slope on the side of
a mesa in a pit in the south polar region of Mars. The dark
material in this scene is windblown sand. These landforms are
located near 70.9°S, 357.3°W. The image covers an area
approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated
by sunlight from the 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.