Low hills and a few small impact craters can be discerned. The Mapping Orbit was finally achieved in late February 1999, after nearly 1 extra year of careful aerobraking to reduce stress on one of the spacecraft's solar panels that was damaged shortly after launch in November 1996. Small meteoroids have punctured the dust cover in places, leaving small, bright-rimmed craters. A few, small, bright windblown drifts are visible in the lower half of the scene. This picture is a simple cylindrical map-projected view, north is up and illumination is from the upper left.
North is up and illumination is from the left.
Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission.