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New Mars Global Surveyor Images

NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES

Two new images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in
orbit around Mars are now available:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/

The image captions are appended below.

Ron Baalke
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                            Mars Global Surveyor
                             Mars Orbiter Camera

                 MOC Aerobraking Orbit Color Image #1 - P013

Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Release:                  MOC2-12
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Image IDs:         560380477.1301
                                                            560380477.1302
                                                                P013-01,02

MOC images P013_01 and P013_02 were acquired with the low resolution red and
blue wide angle cameras at 2:14 PM PDT on October 3, 1997, about 11 minutes
after Mars Global Surveyor passed close to the planet for the thirteenth
time. To make a color image, a third component (green) was synthesized from
the red and blue images. During the imaging period, the spacecraft was
canted towards the sun-lit hemisphere by 25¡, and the MOC was obliquely
viewing features from about 600 to 1000 km (360 to 600 miles) away. The
resolution at those distances was between 350 and 600 meters (0.25 to 0.37
miles) per picture element. The image covers an area from 73¡ to 86¡ W
longitude and 5¡ N to to 10¡ S).

In both of the two images shown above, north is to the top. In the MOC
image, the camera was viewing towards the west.

     (A) is excepted from a U.S. Geological Survey shaded relief map,
     showing the footprint of the MOC wide angle color image. The large
     canyon system (Valles Marineris) spans this view; chaotic terrain is
     seen at the far right and the eastern-most of the four large Tharsis
     volcanoes (Ascraeus Mons) is shown in upper left.

     (B) is the composite of MOC frames P013_01 and P013_02. Because the MOC
     acquires its images one line at a time, the cant angle towards the
     sun-lit portion of the planet, the spacecraft orbital velocity, and the
     spacecraft rotational velocity combine to distort the image slightly.
     However, the wide angle cameras provide a fairly realistic portrayal of
     what one would see looking out across Mars from the Orbiter. Notable in
     this image are the late afternoon clouds and hazes that are
     concentrated within the canyon system.

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Launched on November 7, 1996, Mars Global Surveyor entered Mars orbit on
Thursday, September 11, 1997. From the planned 400 km (248 mi) orbit
altitude, MOC wide angle images will be 2-4 times higher resolution than
these pictures.

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, 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.