NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Pavonis Mons

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-609, 18 January 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
wide angle color composite image, obtained in December 2003,
shows the middle of the three Tharsis Montes, Pavonis Mons.
This is a broad shield volcano–similar to the volcanoes of
Hawaii–located on the martian
equator at 113°W. The volcano summit is near 14 km (~8.7 mi)
above the martian datum (0 elevation); the central caldera
(crater near center of image) is about 45 km (~28 mi.) across
and about 4.5 km (~2.8 mi.) deep.
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.