In August, as the Mars Polar Lander sped toward its December 1999 rendezvous with Mars, researchers were using this topographic map, constructed with data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), to select a landing site. The selected site, at 76° south latitude and 195° east longitude (between six and seven o'clock and between the two inner latitude rings in this image), represents a compromise between safety for the lander and the promise of interesting science. The article by Raymond Ladbury describes how MOLA and other experiments on the Mars Global Surveyor are changing how researchers look at Mars. (Courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.)