NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Mesa in Granicus Valles
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-697, 15 April 2004
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a mesa left standing when erosion created the
Granicus Valles system, located west of the Elysium volcanoes
near 27.8°N, 224.3°W. Dark dots at the base of the
mesa’s slopes and on the valley floor are large boulders.
The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.