NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Patterned Plains
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1596, 25 September 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows the patterned ground of the cold, martian northern plains. The circular features are the sites of buried impact craters. |
Location near: 70.5°N, 340.6°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
Illumination from: lower right |
Season: Northern Spring |
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.