Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Ridges and Sand Dunes

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-369, 23 May 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Dark, windblown sand dunes have over-ridden a suite of low, somewhat rectilinear ridges on the floor of an impact crater near 36.5°S, 219.0° W, in this Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image acquired in May 2003. The dune field is located in Terra Cimmeria. The image is 1.2 km (3/4 mile) wide; sunlight illuminates the scene 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.

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