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Wednesday, November 21, 2001 100,000th Pic! 100,000th Pic. Credit: NASA/MSSS (MSNBC) - [Mars Global Surveyor] has taken its 100,000th picture of Mars, far eclipsing the photographic bounty returned by any other mission to the Red Planet. Scientists recieved the image from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor on Nov. 5, nearly five years to the day after the robotic satellite was launched. No other spacecraft has taken as many pictures of Mars. NASA’s twin Viking orbiters have come the closest, returning a total of about 55,000 images of the planet between 1975 and 1980. So far, about two-thirds of the images returned from Global Surveyor have been examined, cataloged and archived on the Internet. NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey, another unmanned satellite, joined Global Surveyor in orbit around Mars in October. It will begin its science work in February. (More info: MSNBC.com) @ 21:55 EST