Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Sedimentary Rock Near Coprates

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-420, 13 July 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This mosaic of two Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) narrow angle camera images, one from 2001, the other from 2003, shows light-toned, layered, sedimentary rock outcrops exposed on the floor of a trough that parallels Coprates Chasma in the Valles Marineris system. Layered rocks form the pages from which the history of a place can be read. It may be many years before the story is read, but for now at least we know where one of the books of martian history is found. This picture is located near 15.2°S, 60.1°W. 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.

To MSSS Home Page