Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

Have a Nice Spring! MOC Revisits "Happy Face" Crater

MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-175, 30 August 1999

Smile! Spring has sprung in the martian southern hemisphere. With it comes the annual retreat of the winter polar frost cap. This view of "Happy Face Crater"---officially named "Galle Crater"---shows patches of white water ice frost in and around the crater's south-facing slopes. Slopes that face south will retain frost longer than north-facing slopes because they do not receive as much sunlight in early spring. This picture is a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) red and blue wide angle cameras. The wide angle cameras were designed to monitor the changing weather, frost, and wind patterns on Mars. Galle Crater is located on the east rim of the Argyre Basin and is about 215 kilometers (134 miles) across. In this picture, illumination is from the upper left and north is up.

For a higher resolution view of this figure (575 Kbytes), Click HERE.

Other Views of "Happy Face" Crater:

• "Happy Face" Crater Greets MGS at the Start of the Mapping Mission, MOC2-89, March 11, 1999

• Viking Orbiter views of "Happy Face" Crater, 1976-1980

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.

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