Status Report

NASA Mars Pictureof the Day: Utopia Plain

By SpaceRef Editor
March 5, 2006
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Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1392, 5 March 2006


Medium-sized view of MGS MOC Picture of the Day, updated daily


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems



This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a dark-toned, cratered plain in southwest Utopia Planitia. Large, light-toned, windblown ripples reside on the floors of many of the depressions in the scene, including a long, linear, trough.

Location near: 30.3°N, 255.3°W

Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)

Illumination from: lower left

Season: Northern Winter


Tips for Media Use

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.

SpaceRef staff editor.