NASA Mars Picture of the Day: Tiled Floor 04-30-2006
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1448, 30 April 2006
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a variety of materials found on the floor of an impact crater northwest of Hellas Planitia. The discontinuous, dark-toned ridges, typically running diagonally across the scene, are windblown ripples which overlie light-toned rock that is heavily fractured and cratered. |
Location near: 25.0°S, 322.9°W |
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 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.