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PHOTO CAPTION                        MRPS #83495
                                     August 25, 1997
                                     Elysium region of Mars

This Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) picture shows the Elysium region 
of Mars as it appeared from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) 
spacecraft on on August 20, 1997. At the time, MGS was 5.57 
million kilometers (3.46 million miles) and 22 days from Mars, 
and the picture has a resolution is about 20.8 km per picture 
element. Mars, 6800 km (4200 mile) in diameter, is about 327 
pixels across. North is at the top of the image. The camera was 
pointed at the center of the planet (near the dark, morning 
sunrise line, or terminator) at 23.6¡ N, 217.4¡ W. At this 
distance from Mars, only atmospheric phenomena (clouds and fog) 
and bright and dark markings resulting from variations in the 
amount and thickness of dust and sand are usually visible. 
However, in this view the shading of the relief of the three 
Elysium volcanoes (from north to south Hector Tholus, Elysium 
Mons, and Albor Tholus) can be seen owing to their position close 
to the terminator. Elysium Mons, the center-most volcano, is 
estimated to be 12,000-14,000 meters (39,000 to 46,000 feet) 
high. 
                                   
The Mars Global Surveyor mission is operated by the Mars Surveyor 
Operations Project managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, Pasadena CA. JPL is a division of the California 
Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Mars Orbiter Camera is a 
duplicate of one of the six instruments originally developed for 
the Mars Observer mission. It was built and is operated under 
contract to JPL by an industry/university team led by Malin Space 
Science Systems, San Diego, CA.  The Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial 
partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in 
Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO.

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