The imaging team of NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft
has doubled the number of Mars pictures available to the public
with the release of a new archive of red planet pictures totally
slightly more than 30,000 images.
The archive contains all the pictures that were taken by
Mars Global Surveyor from September 1999 through February 2000
and includes the images that were taken to search for the Mars
Polar Lander spacecraft. No evidence of the lander was ever
seen. The archive also covers the period of south polar cap
retreat through southern spring and into early summer. This
includes changes observed on the south polar cap’s “Swiss cheese”
surfaces, among others.
The full gallery of 30,000 images is available at
http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/ , http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs .
A sample of images is available at
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/oct_2000_sampler/,
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs .
Mars Global Surveyor was launched on November 7, 1996 and
entered orbit around Mars on September 12, 1997. The spacecraft
has been systematically mapping the red planet since March 1999.
Mars Global Surveyor is managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
The camera system was built and is operated by Malin Space
Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. JPL’s industrial partner is
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., which developed and
operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
