Need A Holiday? Hike Mars
By Emma Norman
Bored on a Sunday afternoon? Fancy a stroll? Fed up of the same old dull view of grass, trees and well-intentioned joggers? Well there’s a whole new world of hiking heaven out there for you avid walkers. Destination: Mars.Whiz-kid cartographers from a consortium of European academic and aerospace institutes have produced the first contoured maps of a region of Mars. A similar format to Ordnance Survey maps, they show the height of the land, clearly depict individual geological features and are available in a range of scales.
The scientists produced the maps by superimposing contour lines onto images taken by a High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HSRC) on-board the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express.
For any fellow rock fans (I’m not talking Stones of the Rolling kind) the mapped region is called Iani Chaos. It features a chaotic landscape of jutting ‘islands’ of rocks. These are likely remnants of an earlier surface of the planet. These piles of rocks were left when cavities that had formed beneath the surface collapsed, possibly as they were supported by ice that melted due to volcanic activity.
However if you’re looking for local hostelries or a campsite to complete the hiking experience, prepare to be disappointed. Unfortunately teams at the ESA haven’t yet mapped the local facilities so this is no walk in the park.
Got your rucksack packed? Suitable footwear, wet weather gear, bobble hat, flask of tea….well not quite, anoraks won’t fair here. More like oxygen tank, weighted boots and extra strong sun protection! With the maps’ contour lines depicting differences in heights of 250 metres, the Norfolk fens it ain’t.
These maps demonstrate the potential application of data gathered by the HRSC and it is currently collecting the data to enable such mapping of the whole of Mars.
It may be a bit more than a gentle Sunday afternoon stroll but these maps could soon make the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a reality.
Other available titles in the solar system travel series:
The sun worshippers guide to Mercury
Vacations on Venus
Jaunts in Jupiter
Alternative Nudist Holidays: Uranus
Peaks of Pluto
Find out a bit about Emma here. She's very smiley!
Image: Map Compilation: Technische Universität Berlin, 2006; Image Data: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Share this
