NASA Mars Picture of the Day: North Polar Dunes 01-01-2005

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-957, 31 December 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows dark sand dunes in the north polar region
of Mars. They are streaming away (toward the left) from
a low escarpment at the edge of an outlier of polar
water ice (the bright area on the right). The picture
covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is located
near 80.7°N, 80.2°W. 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.