NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Scene from Ius

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-805, 1 August 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows landforms in southeastern Ius Chasma,
part of the Valles Marineris trough system. Near the top
of the image are light-toned rock outcrops; at the bottom
center is a small butte–the remnant of some formerly
more extensive rock unit. The lower two thirds of the
picture is dominated by dark, windblown sand dunes.
The image is located
near 8.7°S, 79.2°W, and covers an area
about 3 km (1.9 mi) across.
Sunlight illuminates the terrain 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.