PIA01173: MOC View of Mars98 Landing Zone - 1/16/98

Target Name: Mars Is a satellite of: Sol (our sun) Mission: Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Spacecraft: Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter Instrument: Mars Orbiter Camera Product Size: 2048 samples x 2048 lines Produced By: Malin Space Science Systems Producer ID: MOC2-26B MRPS86922 Addition Date: 1998-02-12 Primary Data Set: MGS EDRs Full-Res TIFF: PIA01173.tif (2.498 MB) Full-Res JPEG: PIA01173.jpg (512.8 kB)

Original Caption Released with Image: 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). 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. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems