MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR Image of the Week October 23, 2006 The following new image taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft is now available: o A Few Good Barchans (Released 23 October 2006) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/10/23 Image Caption: This Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) image shows several small, dark sand dunes and a small crater (about 1 kilometer in diameter) within a much larger crater (not visible in this image). The floor of the larger crater is rough and has been eroded with time. The floor of the smaller crater contains windblown ripples. The steep faces of the dunes point to the east (right), indicating that the dominant winds blew from the west (left). This scene is located near 38.5?S, 347.1?W, and covers an area approximately 3 km (1.9 mi) wide. Sunlight illuminates the landscape from the upper left. This southern autumn image was acquired on 1 July 2006. --------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived here: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) 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, CA. 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, CA and Denver, CO.
