QUESTION:
Will the MGS map the surface on Mars? Are you going to take new photos from
Cydonia region?

ANSWER from Wendy Calvin on July 16, 1997:
The obrbiter instruments will provide information on both the topography
(elevations up and down) as well as pictures at higher spatial resolution
than the Viking orbiter cameras. These higher resolution images will only be
made for only a limited amount of the surface.

The combination of images and topography will eventually be combined into
maps of the surface, also called "cartographic" products.

There are some images planned for the Cydonia Region, but whether they are
acquired will depend on many uncertain parameters such as spacecraft
pointing and orbit spacing.  From a scientific stand point this area, best
known as the location of the "Face on Mars," is simply one of many
knobby-hilled regions on the planet.  For a comprehensive description of
both the Viking image analysis and the plans for the MGS camera MOC I'd
recommend that you look at the Web pages from Malin Space Science Systems:

http://www.msss.com/education/facepage/face.html and
http://www.msss.com/education/facepage/face_discussion.html