Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Crumbled Mesa
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-463, 25 August 2003
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows a mesa in the Avernus Colles region of Mars, near 3.9°S, 190.8°W. The mesa and the very large blocks that have been shed from its slopes are all that remain of a once much more extensive suite of layered rock that used to cover the entire area shown here. This full-resolution (1.5 meters--5 feet--per pixel) image covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) 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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