NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Rippley Channel
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1589, 18 September 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a narrow channel on the upper east flank of the martian volcano, Hadriaca Patera. Because it is located on a volcano, most likely this channel was formed by lava, perhaps as a lava tube at which the thin roof later collapsed. Large ripples of windblown sediment now occur on the channel floor; their crests are generally perpendicular to the channel walls, suggesting that winds blow up and down through this channel. |
| Location near: 30.5°S, 266.2°W |
| Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern Autumn |
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.
