Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Schiaparelli's Sedimentary Rocks
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-874, 9 October 2004
NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
Schiaparelli Basin is a large, 470 kilometer (~292 miles) impact crater located east of Sinus Meridiani. The basin might once have been the site of a large lake--that is, if the sedimentary rocks exposed on its northwestern floor were deposited in water. This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows a 1.5 meter per pixel (5 ft per pixel) view of some of the light-toned, finely-bedded sedimentary rocks in northwestern Schiaparelli. The image is located near 1.0°S, 346.0°W, and covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the 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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