NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Outcrops in Aram
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1320, 23 December 2005
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows light-toned rock outcrops, mesas, and buttes in Aram Chaos. Located immediately west of Ares Vallis, Aram Chaos is a large, nearly-filled impact basin. The sedimentary materials that filled the basin have been lithified—that is, hardened to form rock. |
Location near: 2.8°N, 20.0°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower left |
Season: Northern Winter |
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.
