Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) is a San Diego, California-based private technology company that designs, develops, and operates instruments and technical equipment to fly on uncrewed spacecraft.

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.

In December 2004, MSSS was selected to provide three cameras for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2008) mission, under contract to Northwestern University.

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.

[6] Malin Systems published several documents which describe what they found: Before the December 2006 paper, some researchers were skeptical that liquid water was responsible for the surface features seen by the spacecraft.

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'.

[8][9][10][11] 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.