NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Skirted Mesa
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1500, 21 June 2006
 NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
| This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a portion of a mesa in eastern Candor Chasma. The mesa appears to be composed of at least two different rock types based on the near-vertical appearance of the scarps which define the top portion of the mesa and the gentler slopes that extend down to where the base of the mesa meets the chasm floor. The uppermost rock unit is more resistant to erosion, and thus is harder. |
| Location near: 7.6°S, 65.5°W |
| Image width: ~2 km (~1.2 mi) |
| Illumination from: upper left |
| Season: Southern Summer |
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.
