The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) Public Target Request Site began collecting public and science community suggestions for MOC narrow angle imaging on 20 August 2003. With the loss of the MGS spacecraft on 2 November 2006, the program came to an end.

Targets suggested by the public were incorporated into the MGS MOC operational database at Malin Space Science Systems. There, they waited until a time when MGS was predicted to pass over the requested site. When the predicted ground track intersected a site of interest, the MOC operations team determined the best way to acquire the requested image, then commanded the camera to do so. Several days later, the image was acquired and returned to Earth.

Links to publicly suggested images were posted to this web site once a month, in chronological order, the most recent month at the top. Images and ancillary data presented on this page were not validated or archived at the time of their posting to this site, and should be considered previews. Within 6 to 12 months of acquisition, all data were validated and archived in final form with the NASA Planetary Data System (PDS) and posted in the MOC Gallery. Typically, the labor-intensive data validation process resulted in improvements and corrections to the image headers and the table (.tab) of ancillary information. For MOC images that have data drops in them, the validation process may also have resulted in improved recovery of the dropped data. Until the images are validated and archived, the data posted on this page were the best available.

All data posted to this page are in the public domain. The processed images posted here are value added products; their use in all forms of publication should be credited to NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems. Click on the Month Data Were Acquired to see the Public Images obtained during that month.