Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Textured Memnonia Plain

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-435, 28 July 2003


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

One of the goals of the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Picture of the Day collection is to provide a sense of the great diversity of terrain, surfaces, patterns, and textures of the martian surface, as viewed by the MOC high resolution (narrow angle) camera. This image shows an intercrater plain in the Memnonia region that has been severely eroded by wind to form sharp ridges known as yardangs. This terrain would be very difficult to walk, or drive a rover, across. The picture is located near 11.8°S, 157.2°W. The scene is illuminated by sunlight 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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