The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has been on the red planet since October 2001, and nine years later, it’s captured enough images for the most accurate Mars map in history. Look out Google Earth! There’s a new planet in town.
“The broad purpose underlying all these sites is to make Mars exploration easy and engaging for everyone,” said Philip Christensen, principal investigator for THEMIS and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility. “We are trying to create a user-friendly interface between the public and NASA‘s Planetary Data System, which does a terrific job of collecting, validating and archiving data.”
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Photo by scott*eric via Flickr.