NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Kaiser Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-667, 16 March 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Kaiser Crater, located in Noachis Terra
near 46.5°S, 340.7°W, has some rather large,
dark, sand dunes on its floor. Some of the dunes
are seen in this February 2004
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
view. Dark streaks on the dunes were formed by passing
springtime and summer dust devils that disrupted a very
thin, fine coating of dust on the dunes. The light-toned
patch at the upper (north) end of this image is an exposure
of the rock that underlies the dune field in Kaiser Crater.
This picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates the scene 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.