NASA's planetary science missions have a long-standing tradition of publishing the first results of each project in the American Association for the Advancement of Science's journal, Science. This practice began with the first successful U.S. planetary spacecraft, Mariner 2, in the March 8, 1963, issue of Science.
The Mars Global Surveyor Project continued this tradition, with the publication of the mission's initial, preliminary results in the March 13, 1998, issue of Science.
The Mars Orbiter Camera team's paper, "Early Views of the Martian Surface from the Mars Orbiter Camera of Mars Global Surveyor," included 7 figures. The team also contributed the colorful illustration that was used on the cover of that particular issue of Science (volume 279, number 5357, March 13, 1998).
Some of the pictures used in the Science paper have appeared on this website before. Others were prepared especially for the Science paper. Because of space limitations in the journal, we were unable to provide pictures that show the context of each MOC image. This website release is designed to provide additional caption and context information that was not available in Science.
For more information about the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and mission, visit the Mars Global Surveyor Project Web Site.
Click on the title below for each figure to proceed to that release.
Cover Photograph: Color Image of Layers within the
Valles Marineris.
Figure 1a: Medusae Fossae Formation.
Figure 1b: Wind-Eroded Buttes near Nicholson Crater.
Figure 2: Sand Dunes and Landslide Debris on the Floor of
Hebes Chasma.
Figure 3a: Eroded Crater Floor Deposit in Western Arabia Terra.
Figure 3b: Dark Sand Dunes on the Floor of Kaiser Crater.
Figure 4a: Layered Outcrops in Valles Marineris.
Figure 4b: Complex Terrain in Candor Chasma in Valles
Marineris System.
Figure 5: Rectilinear Ridges in South Polar
Layered Terrain ("Inca City").
Figure 6a: Springtime Close-up of Permanent South Polar Ice Cap.
Figure 6b: Springtime Close-up of Layers in the South Polar Ice Cap.
Figure 7a: A Springtime View of the Retreating South Polar Ice Cap.
Figure 7b: Clouds over the Tharsis Volcanoes.
Figure 7c: The Regional Dust Storm of November-December 1997.
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 pfrom 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.
Contact: info@msss.com