NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Terra Sirenum Slope

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-789, 16 July 2004

NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
image shows the layered rocks and boulders exposed on the
wall of a trough in the Terra Sirenum region. The layers that
erode to produce large boulders are harder and more
resistant to weathering and erosion than those that do not.
The slope is located
near 25.8°S, 139.8°W.
The image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is
illuminated by sunlight from the upper 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.