NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Oblique Olympus Mons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-479, 10 September 2003

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This is a red camera wide angle view of the giant martian
volcano, Olympus Mons, acquired by the
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). The
volcano is large enough to cover much of the U.S. state of
New Mexico. This view was taken looking west toward the
sunward limb of the planet. The limb is the horizon to
the left; the dark band is outer space.
The two views shown here are exactly the same (the image
is too narrow to otherwise meet the Picture of
the Day format, so it is shown twice). 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.