NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Kasei Valles Flow

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-503, 4 October 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
picture shows the lobate fronts of a large flow or series
of smaller flow features in Kasei Valles. The rubbly surface
of the flow has been interpreted to suggest that this might have been
a mud flow, rather than a lava flow, but final determination
will someday require a person to visit this landform “in the
field.” This picture is illuminated from the right and covers
an area approximately 8 km (5 miles) wide near
15.7°N, 77.7°W.

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.