In the spirit of Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Moon, the next frontier for Google maps junkies has been released – Google Mars.
Using maps from images taken by NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor, Google provides users images of the Martian surface. View mountains, craters, dunes, ridges, canyons, and plains… all by name. You can also view the location of various spacecraft that have explored Mars.
It works just like Google Maps, you can zoom in, drag from side to side, and pinpoint locations. � You can view by elevation, by infrared, or by the straight image.
Hopefully, Google will follow through with plans to add the images to Google Earth, which would allow you to tilt and pan the image. � Until then, enjoy the browser based version here – it’s pretty cool.