Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera
Sedimentary Rocks and Dunes
MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-921, 25 November 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 buttes composed of light-toned, sedimentary rock exposed by erosion within a crater occurring immediately west of Schiaparelli Basin near 4.0°S, 347.9°W. Surrounding these buttes is a field of dark sand dunes and lighter-toned, very large windblown ripples. The sedimentary rocks might indicate that the crater interior was once the site of a lake. The image covers an area about 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the scene 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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