THE LAST TRANSMISSIONStories from the Edge of ScienceTHE LAST TRANSMISSION / EXPLORATION MAP 004
A volcano that dwarfs mountains. A continent-spanning fracture. A delta that once carried water. Approach the surface, then follow the evidence.
CHANGE SCALE / MARS SURFACE EXPLORER
Drive Perseverance across an expansive, illustrated Mars landscape, then look around real panoramic photographs from the landing site, delta, and crater rim. A rock is a record. What would you investigate?
Enter the rover explorer
Select a destination. Drag to look around; pinch or use the zoom buttons.
DESTINATION 01 / MARS SYSTEM
The planet that kept its scars
Mars preserves volcanoes, canyons, impact scars, and old water-shaped landscapes. Orbital gravity and seismic measurements reach below that surface, but the global Viking image map in this scene cannot show subsurface heat or current activity.
DESTINATION 02 / MARS SYSTEM
The great shield volcano
Olympus Mons is the largest known volcano in the solar system. Its vast shield records long-lived lava flows. The image below is a Viking Orbiter mosaic; the globe view shows the region, while the closer spacecraft view carries the detail.
DESTINATION 03 / MARS SYSTEM
A fracture across a world
The immense troughs of Valles Marineris are commonly linked to crustal stretching and the rise of the neighboring Tharsis region, then modified by collapse and erosion. The close view below is a spacecraft mosaic; its sharp relief should not be inferred from the lower-resolution globe texture.
DESTINATION 04 / MARS SYSTEM
A preserved river delta
Perseverance landed in Jezero to investigate an ancient lake basin and river delta. Layers, minerals, and collected samples can test environmental history; they are not by themselves evidence that life once existed there. The color image below uses enhanced orbital data to expose the delta.
DESTINATION 05 / MARS SYSTEM
The close, grooved moon
Phobos is the larger and closer of Mars’s two moons. Its Stickney crater and grooves invite competing interpretations of impacts, structural stress, and surface movement. The moon is deliberately enlarged here so that it can be explored.
DESTINATION 06 / MARS SYSTEM
The quiet outer moon
Deimos is smaller and farther out than Phobos. Its surface looks smoother in many images because loose material partially fills craters. Its origin remains an open problem, and the pale map here is a compiled resource texture, not a current spacecraft view.
The globe uses a Viking-era image map processed by USGS and supplied by NASA/JPL-Caltech. Surface destination markers indicate approximate geographic regions; the map resolution cannot show rover-scale terrain. Separate NASA orbital views in the files give closer detail. The globe is a color image, not a MOLA elevation model. Moon sizes and positions are enlarged and arranged for navigation, not to scale or a live orbital simulation.
Self-hosted planetary textures: Mars, NASA/JPL-Caltech and USGS; Phobos, NASA/JPL/Solar System Simulator; Deimos, NASA/JPL/Solar System Simulator. The close views are credited beside each image.
INTERACTIVE EXPEDITION / PHOBOS
Turn the moon, stand beneath Mars, then toss a rock in a world that barely holds it down.
Explore Phobos →
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED ARCHIVE
MMX will investigate how Phobos formed and whether its dust contains fragments ejected from Mars. Follow the mission, the sample-return plan, and the limits of the evidence.
SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY / APPLIED HERE
Explore all twelve principlesSurface views combine measurements with different resolution and coverage. A broad view can locate terrain without establishing every local detail. Follow the associated investigations when a claim depends on changes, composition, or conditions beyond the visible map.
Ask yourself How large are the uncertainties, and which claim would go beyond the data?
FROM THE VISUAL ARCHIVE
Read the investigation ↗