Mars Map

British mapping agency Ordnance Survey (OS) has released an easy-to-read map of terrain from the planet Mars.

17:33 17 February 2016

Ordnance Survey, a British mapping agency, has released an easy-to-read map of terrain from the planet Mars using open data published by Nasa. This is the first time that the agency has done such from another planet.

 

The map, which covers about 7per cent of the total Martian surface, has been printed in a one-off edition for British scientists who are involved in planning the landing of a rover on Mars in 2019.

 

Chris Wesson, the OS cartographer behind the map, said: "It was a little hard at first to actually understand the data itself in terms of things like the elevation and the scale and so on.”

 

"But actually the physical process was almost identical to what was used to make an Earth map, or any OS map."

 

He added that future astronauts could use the digital form of the map when exploring Mars.

 

"You have these large areas that looked flat but they're actually really rocky and uneven surfaces - that was the most difficult bit of the map, to try to show that but put it in proportion to these huge craters.”