Abstract
Hebrus Valles is one of the 47 candidate Exploration Zones for the first human landing mission of NASA on Mars. The area meets specified criteria for a scientific expedition—among others, it has potential for the water and other resources necessary to perform such a mission. The aim of the project described in this paper was to attempt to create a specialized map for Mars explorers working in the field. The map of Hebrus Valles proposes locations for the landing zone, habitation zone, regions of interests, and traverses. The proposed map also contains descriptions of the geomorphological features of the landscape and warnings about surface hazards. When combined, these elements produce a surface operation map with special requirements that are unlike any map produced on Earth, perhaps the closest analog is hiking maps. This paper presents a detailed characterization of the map, as well as projecting methodology. The process of panchromatic sharpening is the most important part of mapping, mainly due to the effective fusion between a high resolution digital elevation model and a low-resolution color image. A description of tasks carried out using the cartographic tools JMARS , ArcMap and Photoshop is also included. In conclusion, this paper introduces possibilities of implementation of an interactive variant of the map and provides ideas that may be applicable for designing a cartographic system for future operations on the surface of another planet.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the International Cartographic Association—Commission on Planetary Cartography for organizing the Mars Exploration Zone Map Contest, the jury of the Mars Exploration Zone Map Contest for the chance to write this paper, Henrik Hargitai for helping in writing this paper, International Cartographic Association and University of Wroclaw for sponsorship and Artur Sobczyk, my supervisor, for support.
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Pitura, M. (2017). Hebrus Valles—The Mars Exploration Zone Map. In: Peterson, M. (eds) Advances in Cartography and GIScience. ICACI 2017. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57336-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57336-6_11
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