Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Opportunity Site: Before and After

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-635, 13 February 2004


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This pair of Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) narrow angle images shows the landing site of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity, before and after the landing. The first image was acquired on 24 August 2003, five months prior to the 25 January 2004 landing. The second picture, obtained on 1 February 2004, shows the lander--located within a ~20 meter (~66 feet) diameter crater--and other features that resulted from the landing. The Opportunity landing site is located in Meridiani Planum near 2.0°S, 5.6°W. Both images are simple cylindrical map projections with north up and east to the right; the lower image is about 1.4 kilometers (0.9 miles) wide. The dark area on the right side of the upper picture was not imaged by MOC until after the landing. Sunlight illuminates each scene from the lower left.

For additional MGS MOC views of the Opportunity landing site, see:

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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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