Mars Atlas Revisited: The MGS MOC Wide Angle Map of Mars

Surveyor Updates Mars Atlas

Mars Atlas 2002 - images by NASA, JPL and MSSS

San Diego - Feb 6, 2002
In 1979, NASA published Atlas Of Mars, edited by R.M. Batson, P.M. Bridges, and J.L. Inge, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona. This was a compendium of airbrushed shaded relief maps, controlled photomosaics, and in a few cases albedo (shading) maps, mostly assembled from Mariner 9 survey images, with some gaps filled by Viking orbiter images.

The planet was divided into thirty "quadrangles" or areas, each with an "Mars Chart" or "MC" number (MC-1 through MC-30). The equatorial region was portrayed in the Mercator projection, with Lambert Conformal Conic for the mid-latitudes and Polar Stereographic for the poles.

Although digital products such as the Mars Digital Image Mosaic (MDIM) and various Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) maps have partially supplanted the ATLAS, it remains a standard desktop reference today.

In 1999, the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) aboard the MGS orbiter acquired a global stereo image dataset using its red-filter Wide Angle Camera. We have recently completed a 256 pixel/degree (about 230 meters/pixel) mosaic of these images using software developed at Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS).

MARSDAILY

NASA Outlines Latest Future Mars Map

Pasadena - Oct. 26, 2000
By means of orbiters, landers, rovers and sample return missions, NASA's revamped campaign to explore Mars, announced today, is poised to unravel the secrets of the red planet's past environments, the history of its rocks, the many roles of water and, possibly, evidence of past or present life.