Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Exposing Memnonia Terrain
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-764, 21 June 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 the results of a process that is underway in the Memnonia uplands near 12.9°S, 152.7°W, to strip away one layer of material and reveal a formerly-buried landscape from beneath. All of the area shown here was once covered by a material that has been eroded by wind to form the sharp-crested, nearly-parallel ridges that run diagonally from the upper left toward lower right in this image. These ridges are a classic wind erosion form, known as a yardang. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide and is illuminated by sunlight from the left/upper 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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