Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Landslide!
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-486, 17 September 2003
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This August 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows part of a deposit created by a landslide off the wall of a crater near 12.3°N, 21.3°W. The crater wall is not shown; it is several kilometers to the left of this picture. The debris that slid from the crater wall came from the left/upper left (northwest) and moved toward the lower right (southeast). The crater floor onto which the debris was deposited has more small meteor craters on it than does the landslide material; this indicates that there was a considerable interval between the time when the crater floor formed, and when the landslide occurred. This picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower 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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