NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Stripped Crater Floor

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-632, 10 February 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This full-resolution Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows details on the floor of an ancient meteor crater in the
northeastern part of Noachis Terra.
After the crater formed, layers of material–perhaps
sediment–were deposited in the crater. These materials became somewhat
solidified, but later were eroded to form the patterns shown here.
Many windblown ripples in the scene indicate the presence of coarse-grained
sediment that was not completely stripped away by wind.
The picture is located
near 22.1°S, 307.0°W.
Sunlight illuminates this scene from the left/upper left; the image
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.