NASA Mars Picture of the Day: South Polar Scene 02-05-2004

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-627, 5 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows a portion of the south polar residual cap.
Sunlight illuminates this scene from the upper left, thus
the somewhat kidney bean-shaped features are pits, not
mounds. These pits and their neighboring polygonal
cracks are formed in a material composed mostly of
carbon dioxide ice. The image is located
near 87.0°S, 5.7°W, and covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.

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.