NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Mesas on Depression Floor

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-807, 3 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows mesas and buttes on the floor of a depression
in the Labyrinthus Noctis region of Mars. This is part
of the western Valles Marineris. Each mesa is a remnant of
a formerly more extensive sequence of rock. The image is located
near 7.0°S, 99.2°W. It 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.