![]() ![]() Other than the Moon and Earth, Mars is the most comprehensively mapped body in the solar system. Perhaps no other planet has captured our imagination like Mars, the milieu for countless stories and movies. These missions resulted in over 500 maps of the Moon from local to global, before 1975! After the Moon, other bodies were mapped with electronically-transmitted photographs. Five more orbiters were deployed through 1968. Space-based mapping began in 1961 with NASA’s Ranger probes to the Moon using television cameras. Their original coordinate systems for both of these orbs are still in use today. In the 1800s, German astronomers Wilhelm Beer and Johann von Madler made the first scientific maps of the Moon and Mars. As instruments became more powerful, more celestial bodies were discovered and mapped. With only the naked eye, people made maps of the moon for millennia, but revolution came with Galileo’s refracting telescope. In those ancient days, explorers and scientists proved Earth was round, and estimated Earth's size with remarkable accuracy. Without the study of the planets and stars there would be no earthly coordinate systems. Ancient civilizations studied the movements of celestial bodies and built maps and monuments based on their movements. The History of Planetary Mappingįor as long as we have been gazing at the sky, we have been mapping it. While the mapping of extraterrestrial bodies may seem esoteric and irrelevant to our daily work, the history, techniques and future of planetary cartography have many ties to terrestrial mapping. ![]() In this article, we’ll explore the solar system and beyond. But mapping and thus, geography, goes well beyond our beautiful home world. Now it’s time to change scales.įor most of us, the “geo” in geography is literal: We map the Earth. In my last two articles I focused on the built environment, discussing mapping at the scale of city streets, subway stations and individual buildings. What I love about being a geographer is that mapping can literally take you anywhere. ![]()
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