science systems msss type privately held company founded 1990 headquarters san diego california key people michael c. malin ceo website www.msss.com malin space science systems or msss is a san diego california company that designs develops and operates instruments to fly on unmanned spacecraft . msss is headed by chief scientist and ceo michael c. malin . founded in 1990 their first mission was the failed 1993 mars observer for which they developed and operated the mars observer camera ground data system . after this mission they were selected to provide the main camera for mars global surveyor . they also developed the cameras that were carried on mars polar lander mars climate orbiter 2001 mars odyssey mars reconnaissance orbiter and phoenix lander . mars color imager on the mars reconnaissance orbiter one of the most successful of their instruments to date was the mars observer camera moc on board the mars global surveyor placed into orbit around mars in september 1997 . from that date until november 2006 the moc took more than 243 000 images of mars some at very high resolution . among the mocs notable successes was the imaging of the landing sites of the two mars exploration rovers the discarded heatshield of one of the rovers was located . even before they landed images from the moc were very useful in picking the destinations of the two rovers . after more than nine years of active duty the mars global surveyor ceased sending data back to earth and it is now lost along with all its instruments including the moc . for the mars reconnaissance orbiter launched on august 12 2005 msss built the mars color imager marci which takes wide angle daily global views of mars and the context imager ctx which has a six metre resolution . the mars science laboratory was launched in 2011 and it carries three msss cameras . the mastcam is the main camera on board taking still and motion images of the surroundings . the handlens imager is on the instrument arm and provides close up images of martian soil and rocks . finally the mars descent imager mardi provided high resolution images of the ground during descent . in december 2004 msss was selected to provide three cameras for the lunar reconnaissance orbiter 2008 mission under contract to northwestern university . recently the msss has developed junocam for the juno jupiter mission which launched in 2011 . in july 2014 nasa announced the selection of the mastcam z proposal for the upcoming mars 2020 rover mission to be provided by msss . it is an improved zoom version of the original mastcam . 1 the mars orbiter camera built by malin space science systems and used by nasa on the mars observer and mars global surveyor spacecraft . contents 1 liquid water on mars 2 geysers on mars 3 list of products 4 references 5 external links liquid water on mars edit in june 2000 evidence for water currently under the surface of mars was discovered in the form of flood like gullies . 2 the question that was immediately asked was is this an on going process or is this ancient and simply well preserved evidence of water liquid flow most scientists agree that it is highly likely that water did flow on mars in the distant past . 3 malin s camera controllers attempted to answer this question by taking photos of the same locations and in 2005 observation showed two areas where change had clearly occurred within the time of the photos in other words the activity was happening in present time and was not ancient . on december 6 2006 msss announced that it had discovered evidence that liquid water had likely flowed on mars within the past five years . at a press conference nasa showed images taken by the mars global surveyor that suggested that water occasionally flows on the surface of mars . the images did not actually show flowing water . rather they showed changes in craters and sediment deposits providing the strongest evidence yet that water coursed through them as recently as several years ago and is perhaps doing so even now . the findings were published in the december 8 2006 issue of the journal science . 4 malin systems published several documents which describe what they found new gully deposit in a crater in terra sirenum evidence that water flowed on mars in this decade support for hypothesis that groundwater is source for fluid responsible for erosion in martian gullies why the new gully deposits are not dry dust slope streaks before the december 2006 paper some researchers were skeptical that liquid water was responsible for the surface features seen by the spacecraft . they said other materials such as sand or dust can flow like a liquid and produce similar results . at this stage late 2006 the flowing water hypothesis looks strong however more evidence is needed . for more see life on mars . geysers on mars edit main article geysers on mars artist concept showing sand laden jets erupt from geysers on mars producing dark dune spots . published by nasa ; artist ron miller . the msss cameras on board the mars global surveyor produced high resolution images that were also processed by malin space science systems and discovered the intriguing polar features informally known as dark dune spots and spiders . 5 the origin of dark dune spots and the dark slope streaks emanating from them is yet uncertain and various hypotheses have been put forward on their origin and formation process . the current model proposed by nasa and european teams propose cold geyser like systems that eject co2 and dark basaltic sand . the seasonal frosting of some areas near the southern ice cap results in the formation of transparent 1 metre thick slabs of dry ice above the ground . with the arrival of spring sunlight warms the subsurface and pressure from subliming co2 builds up under a slab elevating and ultimately rupturing it . this leads to geyser like eruptions of co2 gas mixed with dark basaltic sand or dust . 6 7 8 9 this process is rapid observed happening in the space of a few days weeks or months a growth rate rather unusual in geology especially for mars . the gas rushing underneath a slab to the site of a geyser carves a spider like pattern of radial channels under the ice . dark dune spots on mars taken by the mars global surveyor and released on october 16 2000 . dark dune spots on mars taken by the mars global surveyor on august 10 1999 . dark dune spots on mars taken by the mars global surveyor on august 10 1999 . a large spider feature apparently emanating sediment to give rise to dark dune spots . area size 1 km 0.62 mi across . list of products edit malin manufactured the following cameras for nasa spacecraft mast camera on mars curiosity rover mastcam mars hand lens imager mahli mars descent imager mardi mars color imager context ctx camera mars orbiter camera junocam references edit nasa selects msss to provide science camera for 2020 mars rover mission . retrieved 10 september 2015 . malin michael c. edgett kenneth s. evidence for recent groundwater seepage and surface runoff on mars . science 2000 vol . 288 . no. 5475 pp. 2330 2335 . msss june 2000 article scientists water likely flows on mars associated press accessed on december 7 2006 albee a. l. ; f. d. palluconi ; r. e. arvidson march 1998 . mars global surveyor mission overview and status . science . 279 5357 1671 1672 . bibcode 1998sci ... 279.1671 a. doi 10.1126 science .279.5357.1671 . pmid 9497277 . retrieved november 24 2008 . nasa findings suggest jets bursting from martian ice cap . jet propulsion laboratory . nasa . august 16 2006 . retrieved august 11 2009 . kieffer h. h. 2000 . annual punctuated co2 slab ice and jets on mars pdf . mars polar science 2000 . portyankina g. ed . 2006 . simulations of geyser type eruptions in cryptic region of martian south pdf . fourth mars polar science conference . kieffer hugh h. ; philip r. christensen and timothy n. titus ; titus timothy n. may 30 2006 . co2 jets formed by sublimation beneath translucent slab ice in mars seasonal south polar ice cap . nature . 442 7104 793 796 . bibcode 2006natur .442 . .793 k. doi 10.1038 nature04945 . pmid 16915284 . retrieved september 2 2009 . external links edit malin space science systems nasa selects msss to provide three science cameras for 2009 mars rover mission malin michael c. ; edgett kenneth s. ; cantor bruce a. ; caplinger michael a. ; danielson g. edward ; jensen elsa h. ; ravine michael a. ; sandoval jennifer l. ; supulver kimberley d. 6 january 2010 . an overview of the 1985 2006 mars orbiter camera science investigation . mars the international journal of mars science and exploration . mars informatics inc. 5 1 60 . bibcode 2010ijmse ... 5 ... 1m . doi 10.1555 mars .2010.0001 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title malin space science systems & oldid 712166138 categories missions to marsspace organizationsprivately held companies based in californiahidden categories use mdy dates from january 2012 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschespa olfran aispolski edit links this page was last modified on 27 march 2016 at 11 32 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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