Planetary Mapping 101
Hello! I’m a new (and newlywed) member of the RedMapper Team, Eian Ray’s adventure, and life partner. Let’s just say Geography is a big deal in our family. On our second date, I brought The Dictionary of Human Geography so we could settle a debate on the definition of “place” — cue eye roll.
As a lifelong lover of maps and humanist geography, I’ve understood maps and mapping as something strictly terrestrial, an important tool for the human experience. To my surprise, maps also play a key role in helping us broaden our relationship with places and geographical environments on other planets! How can you build a relationship with a place where no one has ever lived or even landed?
To further my understanding, I sought out resources from other experts in the field to learn more about off-Earth mapping and why it matters:
The Planets - Photographs from the Archives of NASA. This book helped me to first visualize otherworldly places through photography, much of which is satellite. A great option for someone interested in aerial image interpretation of the other surfaces in our solar system.
Cartography by Kenneth Field. One of the best publications on cartography in general. Although not specific to planetary mapping, the cartographic principles are applicable to any place one wishes to map, including far away places like Mars.
The Atlas of Mars - Mapping its Geography and Geology by Kenneth S Coles, Kenneth L. Tanaka, and Philip R. Christensen. An excellent atlas and recent publication that uses the most current geospatial data available to illustrate the surface geology and history of the Red Planet.
Space Atlas - Mapping the Universe and Beyond by James Trefil. National Geographic published a first and second edition of this wonderful space atlas. It maps out the solar systems inner rocky planets, the outer solar system of gas giants and their moons, as well as the milky way. An absolutely wonder because of its comprehensiveness and stunning detail.
Atlas of Mercury by Davies, Dwornik, Gault, Strom. Published by NASA in 1976, this atlas is a great find. It represents the first mapping of Mercury using imagery captured by spacecraft, in this case NASA’s Mariner 10 mission. No other spacecraft visited the planet until Messenger in 2004, making this atlas a foundational cartographic work for the planet Mercury.
Mapping Mars - Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World by Oliver Morton. An excellent read on the history of Mars exploration over the last two centuries, and the efforts that have been taken to explore and bring to life the surface of Mars from the work of Schappiarelli, Lowell, and modern geologists.
For me, these books have inspired a sense of wonderment and furthered my curiosity. Some humans have dedicated their entire lives to our species reaching, settling, and utilizing these new planetary frontiers. As one says, I’m still exploring worlds, one map at a time.