NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Polygons in Martian Frost
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-428, 21 July 2003
:
![]() NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This June 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a polygonal pattern developed in seasonal carbon
dioxide frost in the martian southern hemisphere. The frost
accumulated during the recent southern winter; it is now
spring, and the carbon dioxide frost is subliming away. This
image is located near 80.4°S, 200.2°W; it is
illuminated by sunlight from the upper left, and covers
an area 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
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.