Designed to display large amounts of data in an easy-to-read format, OS maps are used by soldiers, builders, archaeologists, surveyors, engineers, and are especially favored by ramblers for hiking cross country. Now OS is showing how its mapmaking skills could be used for space ramblers on the sands of Mars.
OS says that this is the first map of a place outside of Britain to be created by the agency since the mid-1990s and could prove helpful for future Mars mission planning as well as providing a compelling visual way of informing the public about them. The 2,282-by-1,691-mile Mars map, produced at a scale of 1 to 4 million, is part of an OS effort to assess potential use of its mapping expertise for future Mars missions.
NASA has a 2035 target for landing humans on Mars, although Elon Musk, CEO of private space company SpaceX, has predicted that people could be on Mars within 8 to 10 years. In December Musk said that SpaceX’s audacious vertical rocket landing lays a critical foundation for reusable rockets that could help humans colonize Mars.