Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Small Martian Mesa

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-381, 4 June 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image was acquired during the first week of June 2003. It shows a small mesa surrounded by a plain of dust-mantled dunes and ripples near 5.9°S, 202.8°W. Large, house-sized boulders have tumbled down the mesa slopes. This is one of the highest resolution images from Mars, each pixel covers an area of 1.5 meters (5 feet) across. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the 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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