Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Orbiter Camera

MOC Imaging Phases, Subphases, and Image Identification Numbers

Mars Orbiter Camera images are identified by a 3-character mission subphase descriptor, followed by a hyphen, followed by a 5-digit numerical identification.

During the Aerobraking and Science Phasing Orbits subphases of the mission in 1997 and 1998, the 5-digit numerical indentifier was based on orbit number (defined by periapsis point) and numerical sequence of image commanded for that orbit. For example, an image identified as AB1-10905 was taken during the Aerobraking-1 subphase on orbit 109 and it was the 5th image taken by MOC during that orbit.

The first full Mars year of imaging from the mapping orbit was called the Mapping Mission. The Second full Mars year was called the Extended Mission; the third Mars year is designated by the MOC team as the Relay Mission because data were relayed through the MOC buffer from the Mars Exploration Rovers during this period.

During the Mapping Phase of the mission -- including the Calibration (CAL) and Fixed High-Gain Antenna (FHA) subphases and the subsequent subphases designated M00, M01, M02, M03, M04 (and so forth), the 5-digit identifier indicates the numerical order in which the image was commanded during that subphase. For example, an image identified as M03-00006 was the 6th image commanded during mission subphase M03. The Mapping Phase ended with subphase M23 on January 31, 2001, and the Extended Mission Phase began. Extended Mission images begin with the prefix "Exx" in which "xx" is a number indicating the month from the start of the Extended Mission (e.g., the first month of Extended Mission, February 2001, is E01, the second, March 2001, is E02, etc.). The Relay Mission (third Mars year) began January 1, 2003; that month was designated R01, February 2003 was R02, and so forth. The Science and Support Mission (support for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter aerobraking; fourth Mars year) began December 1, 2004, with S01. Subsequent months in the fourth Mars year of MOC operations are designated S02, S03, and so forth.

Image IDs within a mission subphase are in numerical, time-sequential order based upon the start time for each commanded acquisition. The numbering scheme is independent of the camera used (narrow angle, red wide angle, or blue wide angle) at any point within the sequence. Wide angle context frames are not separately commanded, but rather are autonomously commanded when the camera is told to acquire a context frame for a commanded image. Wide angle context frames are given the ID number immediately following the ID of the commanded image, even though their acquisition begins earlier than the narrow angle image. Gaps in the numbering sequence (e.g., a skip from image 01002 to 01009) usually indicates images that were commanded but never received on Earth; they can also, especially in subphases M09 through M12 and R13 through R19, indicate data from the Mars Relay antenna used for the Deep Space 2, Mars Polar Lander, and Mars Exploration Rover missions. Loss of images can result from any number of problems, including those that occur onboard the spacecraft as well as at receiving stations on Earth.

NOTE 1: There are no subphases M05 nor M06. MOC Mapping subphase designations were re-numbered starting 1 September 1999 to correspond to the Mapping subphase designations used by the MGS Project. Thus, September 1999 is subphase M07, October 1999 is subphase M08, etc.

NOTE 2: ROTO images are "Roll-Only Targeted Observations," in which the spacecraft was slewed up to 30° off-nadir to acquire a desired target. Some ROTOs were conducted in SP1, others were conducted during the first few months following the loss of Mars Polar Lander, but the majority of ROTOs have been conducted since 1 February 2001, the start of the E01. PROTO and cPROTO images are acquired by rolling and pitching the spacecraft in such a way as to obtain an image with better than 1 meter per pixel (usually, about 50 cm) resolution in the downtrack dimension (the crosstrack remains ~1.5 m/pixel). cPROTOs have a built-in compensation for planetary rotation. The first PROTOs and cPROTOs were acquired in 2003.

NOTE 3: MGS was re-oriented from "Nadir" to "Relay-16" (16-degrees off-nadir) on 16 August 2001 at 00:40 UTC. The majority of images from mid-E07 onward were acquired in "Relay-16" orientation.

MOC acquired images during these mission phases and subphases: 


     PHASE       SUBPHASE          DATES                   COMMENTS

Orbit Insertion    AB1     15 SEP 97 to 18 FEB 98    Aerobraking 1

Orbit Insertion    SP1     28 MAR 98 to 28 APR 98    Science Phasing Orbits 1

           (Solar Conjunction, no data 29 APR 98 to 01 JUN 98)

Orbit Insertion    SP2     02 JUN 98 to 12 SEP 98    Science Phasing Orbits 2

             (Aerobraking 2, no data 13 SEP 98 to 27 FEB 99)

Mapping            CAL     28 FEB 99 to 08 MAR 99    MOC Calibration Period

Mapping            FHA     09 MAR 99 to 27 MAR 99    Fixed High-Gain Antenna Operations

Mapping            M00     03 APR 99 to 05 MAY 99    1st  Mapping subphase

Mapping            M01     05 MAY 99 to 04 JUN 99    2nd Mapping subphase

Mapping            M02     04 JUN 99 to 30 JUN 99    3rd  Mapping subphase

Mapping            M03     01 JUL 99 to 10 AUG 99    4th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M04     10 AUG 99 to 31 AUG 99    5th  Mapping subphase

Mapping            M07     01 SEP 99 to 01 OCT 99    6th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M08     01 OCT 99 to 01 NOV 99    7th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M09     01 NOV 99 to 30 NOV 99    8th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M10     01 DEC 99 to 01 JAN 00    9th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M11     01 JAN 00 to 31 JAN 00    10th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M12     01 FEB 00 to 01 MAR 00    11th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M13     01 MAR 00 to 01 APR 00    12th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M14     01 APR 00 to 01 MAY 00    13th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M15     01 MAY 00 to 31 MAY 00    14th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M16     01 JUN 00 to 21 JUN 00    15th Mapping subphase

           (Solar Conjunction, no data 22 JUN 00 to 12 JUL 00)

Mapping            M17     13 JUL 00 to 01 AUG 00    16th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M18     01 AUG 00 to 31 AUG 00    17th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M19     01 SEP 00 to 30 SEP 00    18th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M20     01 OCT 00 to 01 NOV 00    19th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M21     01 NOV 00 to 01 DEC 00    20th Mapping subphase

Mapping            M22     01 DEC 00 to 01 JAN 01    21st Mapping subphase

Mapping            M23     01 JAN 01 to 31 JAN 01    22nd Mapping subphase

Extended           E01     01 FEB 01 to 01 MAR 01    1st month, Extended Mission 

Extended           E02     01 MAR 01 to 01 APR 01    2nd month, Extended Mission

Extended           E03     01 APR 01 to 01 MAY 01    3rd month, Extended Mission

Extended           E04     01 MAY 01 to 01 JUN 01    4th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E05     01 JUN 01 to 01 JUL 01    5th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E06     01 JUL 01 to 01 AUG 01    6th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E07	   01 AUG 01 to 01 SEP 01    7th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E08	   01 SEP 01 to 01 OCT 01    8th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E09	   01 OCT 01 to	01 NOV 01    9th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E10	   01 NOV 01 to 01 DEC 01    10th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E11	   01 DEC 01 to 01 JAN 02    11th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E12	   01 JAN 02 to 01 FEB 02    12th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E13	   01 FEB 02 to 28 FEB 02    13th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E14	   01 MAR 02 to 01 APR 02    14th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E15	   01 APR 02 to 30 APR 02    15th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E16	   01 MAY 02 to 01 JUN 02    16th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E17	   01 JUN 02 to 01 JUL 02    17th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E18	   01 JUL 02 to 31 JUL 02    18th month, Extended Mission

           (Solar Conjunction, no data 01 AUG 02 to 18 AUG 02)

Extended           E19	   19 AUG 02 to 01 SEP 02    19th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E20	   01 SEP 02 to 30 SEP 02    20th month, Extended Mission

Extended           E21	   01 OCT 02 to 31 OCT 02    21st month, Extended Mission

Extended           E22	   01 NOV 02 to 30 NOV 02    22nd month, Extended Mission

Extended           E23	   01 DEC 02 to 31 DEC 02    23rd month, Extended Mission

Relay              R01	   01 JAN 03 to 01 FEB 03    1st month, Relay Mission

Relay              R02	   01 FEB 03 to 01 MAR 03    2nd month, Relay Mission

Relay              R03	   01 MAR 03 to 01 APR 03    3rd month, Relay Mission

Relay              R04	   01 APR 03 to 01 MAY 03    4th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R05	   01 MAY 03 to 31 MAY 03    5th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R06	   01 JUN 03 to 01 JUL 03    6th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R07	   01 JUL 03 to 31 JUL 03    7th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R08	   01 AUG 03 to 31 AUG 03    8th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R09	   01 SEP 03 to 01 OCT 03    9th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R10	   01 OCT 03 to 01 NOV 03    10th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R11	   01 NOV 03 to 01 DEC 03    11th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R12	   01 DEC 03 to 01 JAN 04    12th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R13	   01 JAN 04 to 01 FEB 04    13th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R14	   01 FEB 04 to 01 MAR 04    14th month, Relay Mission

Relay              R15	   01 MAR 04 to 01 APR 04    15th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R16	   01 APR 04 to 01 May 04    16th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R17	   01 May 04 to 01 Jun 04    17th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R18	   01 Jun 04 to 01 Jul 04    18th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R19	   01 Jul 04 to 01 Aug 04    19th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R20	   01 Aug 04 to 01 Sep 04    20th month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R21	   01 Sep 04 to 07 Sep 04    1st part, 21st month, Relay Mission

           (Solar Conjunction, no data 08 SEP 04 to 24 SEP 04)

Relay		   R21	   25 Sep 04 to 01 Oct 04    2nd part, 21st month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R22	   01 Oct 04 to 01 Nov 04    22nd month, Relay Mission

Relay		   R23	   01 Nov 04 to 01 Dec 04    23rd month, Relay Mission

Science/Support	   S01	   01 Dec 04 to 01 Jan 05    1st month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S02	   01 Jan 05 to 31 Jan 05    2nd month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S03	   01 Feb 05 to 28 Feb 05    3rd month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S04	   01 Mar 05 to 31 Mar 05    4th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S05	   01 Apr 05 to 30 Apr 05    5th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S06	   01 May 05 to 31 May 05    6th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S07	   01 Jun 05 to 30 Jun 05    7th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S08	   01 Jul 05 to 31 Jul 05    8th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S09	   01 Aug 05 to 26 Aug 05    9th month, Science/Support Mission

            (MGS upset/safe mode, no data 27 AUG 05 to 07 SEP 05)

Science/Support	   S10	   08 Sep 05 to 30 Sep 05    10th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S11	   01 Oct 05 to 01 Nov 05    11th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S12	   01 Nov 05 to 30 Nov 05    12th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S13	   01 Dec 05 to 01 Jan 06    13th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S14	   01 Jan 06 to 01 Feb 06    14th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S15	   01 Feb 06 to 28 Feb 06    15th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S16	   01 Mar 06 to 31 Mar 06    16th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S17	   01 Apr 06 to 30 Apr 06    17th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S18	   01 May 06 to 31 May 06    18th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S19	   01 Jun 06 to 30 Jun 06    19th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S20	   01 Jul 06 to 31 Jul 06    20th month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S21	   01 Aug 06 to 01 Sep 06    21st month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S22	   01 Sep 06 to 30 Sep 06    22nd month, Science/Support Mission

Science/Support	   S23	   01 Oct 06 to 17 Oct 06    23rd month, Science/Support Mission

           (Solar Conjunction, no data 18 Oct 06 to 2 Nov 06)

    (Contact with MGS was lost on 2 November 2006; no further MOC data)

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project 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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