Mars Global Surveyor (MGS)

Entered Mars orbit on September 11, 1997

Missing presumed lost November, 2006
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In 1998, I created this first image using a previously existing MGS model. It appeared in various places including on a postage stamp - see below on this page. In 1999, I created this realistic version for the Mars Program. It's probably the best artwork of MGS ever done so it gets a lot of mileage.

 

Mars Global Surveyor arriving at Kennedy Space Center, 1996

 

Mars Global Surveyor team

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 1996: The men and women of the MGS team just before launch. Behind them is the rocket with Mars Global Surveyor onboard.

 

Mars Global Surveyor - Welcome to Mars!

I created the image above for both the Mars program and secondarily for Dr. Sally Ride's 1999 children's book, "The Mystery of Mars". I heard she was asking JPL for the best available MGS image. And there were no good ones available, in my opinion. So I took the opportunity to create a new one. Regarding Sally's book: nearly every Mars spacecraft image used in it was created by me. It was pretty cool exchanging emails with her, although I didn't get to meet her in person. When she first emailed my co-worker Kirk Goodall to inquire about artwork, he emailed back, "Are you THE Sally Ride?" and she just replied, "Yep, I'm afraid so!"

 

 
Click on the book cover to read the reviews for "The Mystery of Mars" at Amazon.com. The comments include "sophisticated artist renderings throughout" & " full of spectacular pictures and illustrations". Even though my name did not appear in the book, I was pleased to read such glowing comments by a reviewer!"

 

Corby Waste and Dr. Sally Ride

Sept. 20, 2006 at JPL: I finally got to meet Sally in person.

 

 

 

 The First Look at the Real Face on Mars

Historic April 6, 1998: I happened to be one of the first people on Earth to see what the true "Face on Mars" looked like. Mars Global Surveyor had just returned the first decent pictures from the Cydonia region and Dr. Tim Parker, whose office was practically next to my cubicle, was involved in the image processing. The Face turned out to be an optical illusion but it was still amazing to be there when a discovery like that was being made. 

 

 

The "Face On Mars" before Mars Global Surveyor, on the left. The 2 images on the right were snapped by MGS and reveal the true situation.

Some people are still convinced there was a past human civilization on Mars, no matter what the new images show.

"Richard Hoagland is a nut" - quote from Mars artist Corby Waste,

 

 

Mars Global Surveyor sites of interest

 

Visit the Mars Global Surveyor mission website for more amazing pictures and science discoveries from Mars. Now it's official: MGS collected more data than all the previous Mars missions combined.

Other MGS art of mine is the graphical sitemap for the Mars Global Surveyor website.

The USGS Astrogeology Mars Global Surveyor page

 

 

It's always a thrill when the company who built the spacecraft uses my artwork. Click on the link above to see Lockheed's MGS page.

 

 

Mars Global Surveyor website

 

July 20, 2005

The Pacific island nation of Palau issued this stamp using my old modified image of Mars Global Surveyor. Click on the stamp to learn more.

 

 

Fourth Millennium MGS art link

 

 

 

Continue to Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander

 

 

 

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