Mars Global Surveyor Images - December 27-31, 2003

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES
December 27-31, 2003


The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on
the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available:

o Terby Sedimentary Rocks (Released 27 December 2003)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../27/index.html

o Alba Patera (Released 28 December 2003)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../28/index.html

o Dust-Raising Event (Released 29 December 2003)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../29/index.html

o Fretted Terrain Valley Floor (Released 30 December 2003)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../30/index.html

o 18 Minutes After Beagle 2 Landing (Released 31 December 2003)
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../31/index.html

This oblique Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
wide angle red image shows the Beagle 2 landing zone about 18 minutes
after the probe was scheduled to touch down on 25 December 2003. Mars
Global Surveyor passed to the west of the site shortly after touch-down,
so this image was taken looking east. The white ellipse shows the
approximate location of the landing site. The largest crater to the
northwest (toward upper left) of the ellipse is about 28 km (17.4 mi)
across. The image is streaked and has low contrast because of the
combined effects of looking obliquely and the presence of a thin veil
of dust that not only hung over this region, but over most of Mars on
25 December 2003. During the previous 2 weeks, a large dust storm,
followed by several smaller regional-scale storms, lifted dust in the
western hemisphere of Mars. This dust drifted over most of the planet,
reducing contrast and degrading the quality of MGS MOC images such as
this one. This MOC image is important because it shows that there were
no dust storms or other weather phenomena happening at the landing site
the day Beagle 2 arrived. The landing site is located in Isidis Planitia
near 11°N, 269.7°W. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower left.

All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived he

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.