NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Pedestal Crater

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-962, 5 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows an impact crater, a little over 2 km (> 1.2 mi)
in diameter, located in Noachis Terra
near 50.4°S, 14.3°W. The crater’s bouldery
ejecta blanket has protected underlying material from
being eroded away by wind, leaving the ejecta up
on a low pedestal.
This picture covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) across,
and is illuminated by sunlight from the upper 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.