Google, NASA add planet Mars to Google Earth 5.0

William Atkins
Tuesday, 03 February 2009 03:48

Science - Space

On Monday, February 2, 2009, NASA announced its collaboration with Google to bring a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of Mars. The Google Earth 5.0 will provide maps of the Red Planet so you can explore the planet just like NASA robots on its surface and NASA spacecraft orbiting above.


A map of the planet Mars was first made by Percival Lowell in 1895 as a result of many years of studying it through his telescope. Now, NASA and Google provide a much, much more detailed view of the Red Planet.

NASA says that people can “fly virtually through enormous canyons and scale huge mountains on Mars that are much larger than any found on Earth.”

The NASA media release “NASA and Google Launch Virtual Exploration of Mars” comments that the new Google Earth map of Mars will help the public better understand of the science of the Red Planet.

Such a map by Google is similar to what is provided to scientists and the general public here on Earth.

The views possible with the map also allows users to explore Mars through images provided by surface exploratory robots such as the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity and the Phoenix Lander spacecraft, and orbital exploratory spacecraft such as the 2001 Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The NASA media release also states, “Viewers can learn about new discoveries and explore indexes of available Mars imagery. The new Mars mode also allows users to add their own 3D content to the Mars map to share with the world.”

You can download the Google Earth 5.0 file at http://earth.google.com/ and, then, view three-dimensional maps from images taken by satellites and robotic craft on and above the planet.