NASA Mars Picture of the Day: North Polar Cap

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-842, 7 September 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a 1.4 m/pixel (~5 ft/pixel) view of a typical
martian north polar ice cap texture. The surface is pitted and
rough at the scale of several meters. The north polar residual
cap of Mars consists mainly of water ice, while the south polar
residual cap is mostly carbon dioxide. This picture is located
near 85.2°N, 283.2°W.
The image covers an area approximately 1 km wide by 1.4 km
high (0.62 by 0.87 miles).
Sunlight illuminates this 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.