NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Layered Rocks in Ritchey

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-726, 14 May 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This March 2004
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows light- and dark-toned layered rock outcrops
on the floor of Ritchey Crater, located
near 28.9°S, 50.8°W.
Some or all of these rocks may be sedimentary in origin.
Erosion has left a couple of buttes standing on a more
erosion-resistant plain.
This picture covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) across
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.