The earliest MOC images were acquired when MGS was approaching Mars in mid-1997. The first MOC images from orbit in late 1997 were of lower resolution and somewhat blurry relative to those that would come later, because the Mapping orbit was not to be achieved until March 1999. Here we present 10 new MOC image releases. More than half of these are pictures obtained in the past month, some were received on the ground just in the past few days, after we had already begun to prepare these materials for their January 31st release. These pictures underscore the fact that MOC reveals new martian landscapes each and every day.
New surprises can come at any time.
During this phase, the MOC team will get to routinely point the spacecraft to image specific places on Mars, something that was done very infrequently during the Primary Mission. With MOC, it is quite possible that the best may yet be to come.