NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Lowell’s Dunes

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-935, 9 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

A century ago, the name Percival Lowell and the planet
Mars were intimately linked through his popular writings
about canals built by intelligent beings on the fourth
planet. Today, a crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars
is named for Lowell, who usually observed the planet from
a hilltop in Flagstaff, Arizona.
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image, acquired in October 2004, shows a portion of a sand
dune field in western Lowell Crater. The dunes are located
near 51.3°S, 82.5°W. The image covers an area
about 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.