Discussion: Orienteering on Mars

A step closer following the European Space Agency's release of what they call 'hiking maps' of small areas of Mars... although if you look closely, you will see they need a little more training on 'contour ends' and their undesirability.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMOI5O2U... gives the press release and links to higher-res .jpg files.

I wanna go! I want to run around Mars like Nirgal in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. That would be so cool. And, Robinson is one of the few writers to actually use the word orienteering in his books! Maybe I can stow away like Coyote :-)

Yes, I immediately thought of the Mars trology as well. But the map strikes me as mor einteresting than the book.

So, who's the first to make a Catching Features map from it?

Looks like it could be a rather tough outing if you opted for orienteering on any of those maps - contour interval 250 metres!!

The map at the bottom has a contour interval of 50m and a scale of 1:50,000. They should make a M-ISSOM 2070.

" Watch the bouncing orienteers!"
For adapting to the Martian Catching Features, I hope Big 'uns doesn't forget about Mars' low gravity.

And I'd expect to be able to see those 'martian-made canals' at this resolution.

Rain then sleet then snow then very cold. What a day! (In St Louis, not Mars)

I don't see any contour ends other than places where they broke the contour to put in an elevation value. But it looks like that may have been done by an automated tool that make some poor choices.

Interesting that entire planet of Mars may have published maps of this quality sooner than they'd be available (as far as know) for all of Earth.

Are there any plans of exploring Venus? I'd hate to see that outer-space orienteering possibilities are available only for men.