Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Middle-Latitude Craters
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-648, 26 February 2004
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) image shows two craters and a rough-textured surface in Icaria Planum near 44.5°S, 109.8°W. Both craters have been buried by a thin mantle of material that eroded to form a rough texture. The ejecta pattern from the smaller of the two craters is still apparent through this mantle. While this is a southern mid-latitude surface, similar textures and thinly-buried craters are common at northern mid-latitudes, as well. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the upper left; the picture covers an area 3 km (1.9 mi) wide.
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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