PIA01174: MOC View of Mars98 Landing Zone - 1/16/98


MOC View of Mars98 Landing Zone - 1/16/98

Caption:

On 1/16/1998 at shortly after 12:12 UTC SCET, the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) took this high resolution image of a small portion of the potential Mars Surveyor '98 landing zone. For the purposes of planning MOC observations, this zone was defined as 75 +/- 2 degrees S latitude, 215 +/- 15 degrees W longitude. The location of the image was selected to try to cover a range of possible surface morphologies, reliefs, and albedos.

The spacecraft was observing at approximately 75 degrees S, 213 degrees W. North is to the top of the image.

The effects of ground fog, which obscures the surface features(left), has been minimize by filtering (right).

Background Info:

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.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target Mars
System
Target Type Planet
Mission Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)
Instrument Host Mars Global Surveyor
Host Type Orbiter
Instrument Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
Detector
Extra Keywords Dust, Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 1998-02-12
Date in Caption 1998-01-16
Image Credit NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01174
Identifier PIA01174