NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Knob in Propontis

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-652, 1 March 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a rounded hill, or knob, in the Propontis region
of Mars
near 43.7°N, 189.1°W.
This knob is a remnant of a former terrain, perhaps the
remains of an old crater rim, or eroded upland. Dark specks
on its surface may be large boulders. Old impact craters are
seen in the lower third (southern third) of the image.
The picture covers an
area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide; sunlight illuminates the scene from the
lower 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.