ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2003) — April 4, 2003 -- The winds of Mars leave their marks on many of the 11,664 new pictures being posted on the Internet by the camera team for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission.

In one image the pattern of sand dunes on a patch of southern-hemisphere desert resembles scales on a fish. On a larger scale, full-globe Mars images show wispy water ice clouds shaped by winds as the seasons change. Other new images reveal details of features such as gullies, landslides and seasonal frost.

The new batch, taken between February and July 2002, brings the total number of images in the online gallery to more than 123,800.

MGS has been orbiting the red planet since Sept. 12, 1997. The mission has examined the entire Mars surface and provided a wealth of information about the planet's atmosphere and interior. Evaluation of landing sites for two Mars Exploration Rover missions, due to launch in the next three months, has relied heavily on mineral mapping, detailed imagery and topographic measurements by Global Surveyor.

"The extraordinary wealth of information contained in this unprecedented release of new views of Mars attests to the ongoing scientific value of the reconnaissance of Mars that has been provided by the Mars Global Surveyor for the past five years," said Dr. James B. Garvin, NASA's Lead Scientist for Mars Exploration, at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

"Indeed, there remain new discoveries to be made about the history of water, climate variability, and character of future landing sites from the continuing flow of images, spectra, and related measurements from the Global Surveyor," Garvin continued. "Without the new perspectives provided by MGS, the critical scientific and engineering assessment of potential landing sites for the Mars Exploration Rovers would not have been possible," he said.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics (LMA), Denver. LMA developed and operates the spacecraft. The Mars Orbiter Camera is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

The images are available on the Internet from the Mars Orbiter Camera Gallery at: http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery

Additional information about the Mars Global Surveyor is available on the Internet at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/

For more information about NASA and other space science programs on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

Related Stories

Panel Will Study Mars Global Surveyor Events (Jan. 16, 2007) — NASA has formed an internal review board to look more in-depth into why NASA's Mars Global Surveyor went silent in November 2006 and recommend any processes or procedures that could increase safety ...  > read more

One Mars Orbiter Takes First Photos Of Other Orbiters (May 19, 2005) — Photographs from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft released today are the first pictures ever taken of a spacecraft orbiting a foreign planet by another spacecraft orbiting that ...  > read more

NASA Seeks Public Suggestions For Mars Photos (Aug. 21, 2003) — Earth comes closer to Mars this month than it has in nearly 60,000 years, but one new opportunity for seeing details on the red planet comes from a vantage point much closer. The public has an ...  > read more

Gallery Of Mars Closeups From NASA Orbiter Adds 10,232 Views (Oct. 6, 2003) — Thousands of newly released portraits of martian landscapes from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft testify to the diversity of ways geological processes have sculpted the surface of our ...  > read more

Earth To Mars Climate Orbiter: Are We There Yet? (Sep. 13, 1999) — Like a kid looking out of the window of the family minivan, the camera on board NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter has snapped its first look at the red planet while it was still 4.5 million kilometers ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

First Stars In The Universe