All of Mars
Mars Global Surveyor is photographing Mars. The robot spacecraft arrived
last September and continues to use solar panel
aerobraking to help
maneuver it to a better orbit to survey all of
Mars
The above image is a reconstruction of several
photographs digitally combined to simulate a single
vantage point 2700 kilometers above the Martian surface.
The images were taken by the
Mars Orbital Camera in wide angle mode
in late December 1997. Visible features include the
Valles Marineris
canyon across the top, and the South Polar Cap of frozen carbon dioxide at the bottom.
Many finer features that would normally be
visible are hidden by
dust
remaining from a planet-wide storm that subsided
only three weeks before these images were recorded.