Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Small Impact Crater
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-502, 3 October 2003
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
This May 2003 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image provides a high resolution view (1.5 meters---5 feet---per pixel) of a small meteor crater near 28.0°N, 182.8°W. This crater is about 300 m (~980 feet) across, just under one-third the size of the famous Meteor Crater in northern Arizona, U.S.A. Boulders ejected by the impact dot the scene. Sunlight illuminates the crater 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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