Click to Enlarge
Caption: Comparison of the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) landing site
region with California. The left half of the figure shows a map of Mars' south
polar region created from Viking images. MPL's landing site is drawn as
a 240 km by 20 km ellipse to reflect the accuracy at which the spacecraft
can be targetted. Grid lines are plotted at intervals of two degrees
of latitude and 10 degrees of longitude. The cratered surface is blanketed
by sedimentary layers of ice and dust up to two kilometers thick. South
is at the top of the map and the illumination is from the bottom. The
right half of the image
is a digital elevation model of the state of California overlain with
MPL's landing ellipse. The scale of this map has been reduced by a
a factor of two relative to the Mars map. Image credit: Dr. Ashwin
Vasavada (UCLA).
|