NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Solis Planum Craters

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-972, 15 January 2005

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows several meteor impact craters on Solis Planum.
The second-largest crater in this scene is relatively young
and fresh, exhibiting a rayed ejecta pattern and numerous boulders
near its raised rim. The image covers an area about
3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the
upper left. The craters are located
near 19.8°S, 85.5°W.

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.