Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Gale Sedimentary Rocks

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-1062, 15 April 2005


NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows outcroppings of layered, sedimentary rock in eastern Gale Crater. North-central Gale Crater is the site of a mound that is more than several kilometers thick and largely composed of sedimentary rocks that record a complex history of deposition and erosion. At one time, Gale Crater might have been completely filled and buried beneath the martian surface.
Location near: 4.9°S, 221.6°W
Image width: ~3 km (~1.9 mi)
Illumination from: upper left
Season: Southern Winter


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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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