In an unprecedented move, last year the MGS team began a trial program to allow members of the general public to suggest sites on Mars for the MOC to image. They have set up a website to accept the suggestions, and will choose those sites that show scientific promise that have not been imaged before. The requests are evaluated by the Mars science staff at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) then put into a database for future acquisition. If at some time in the future MGS passes over a site that has been suggested, the camera will be commanded to image the site.
"On 4 September 2003, MGS MOC acquired its first images that were suggested through the public target program. Shown here are two pictures, acquired at the same time by the MOC. The first (left) is a portion of the public-requested high resolution image obtained by MOC's narrow angle camera. The second (right) is a context image taken by MOC's red wide angle camera. The white box in the context image indicates the location of the high resolution view. In both of these images, north is toward the top/upper right and sunlight illuminates them from the lower left."
"The image pair shows
details of the summit caldera of the Martian volcano, Pavonis Mons. The caldera formed by
collapse as molten rock withdrew deep within the volcano, some time in the past. The high
resolution image shows that the caldera floor and walls are presently covered by a thick
(perhaps a meter/yard or more) mantle of textured dust. Dark dots are boulders that are
poking out from within this dust mantle in several areas on the lower caldera wall. This
image partially overlaps a previous, lower-resolution view of the caldera, thus providing
a close-up view at 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel (see E10-01691 or a smaller sub-frame in
E10-01691sub for the lower-resolution image).
Pavonis Mons stands about 14 km (8.7 mi) above the Martian datum (0 elevation), or roughly
6 km (3.7 mi) above its surrounding terrain. The high resolution image covers an area 1.5
km (0.9 mi) across by about 9 km (5.6 mi) long; the context frame is about 115 km (71 mi)
across and down. The high resolution image is located near the equator at 0.4°N,
112.8°W."
For more information on this program, visit the Malin Space Science Systems' Mars Orbiter Camera Public Target Request Site.
