Meridiani Planum

Scaled Image

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU

About this image

Long before the MER landers were named or launched, the two orbiters at Mars were asked to examine landing sites. Both the Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have been collecting landing site data for the past two years. The MGS and ODY data were used as part of the decision making process in the final selection of the two landing sites. The types of data collected by the two orbiters included not only images of the surface but also thermal data about the surface composition, atmospheric data about the climate at each location, and the tracking of major dust storms in the region prior to landing. The presence of, and data collected by, the MGS and ODY orbiters have proven invaluable in MER mission planning.
This image is located a bit to the north of Opportunity's landing site and shows some impressive recent craters, as well as the barely-visible marks of older craters. Small sand dunes are present in many depressions.

Please see the THEMIS Data Citation Note for details on crediting THEMIS images. 

Context

Image ID: 
V04369006 (View data in Mars Image Explorer)
2.0321
357.588
4369
2002-12-08 23:34
Tue, 2004-01-27
VIS
1024 pixels (18 km)
3648 pixels (64 km)
0.017745 km/pixel
0.017874 km/pixel

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