Article ID: CBB974270108

Extra-terra incognita: Martian maps in the digital age (February 2017)

unapi

Science and technology studies (STS) and critical cartography are both asking questions about the ontological fixity of maps and other scientific objects. This paper examines how a group of NASA computer scientists who call themselves The Mapmakers conceptualizes and creates maps in service of different commitments. The maps under construction are those of alien Mars, produced through partnerships that NASA has established with Google and Microsoft. With the goal of bringing an experience of Mars to as many people as possible, these maps influence how we imagine our neighbouring planet. This paper analyzes two attributes of the map, evident in both its representation and the attending cartographic practices: a sense of Mars as dynamic and a desire for a democratic experience of Mars in which up-to-date Mars data can be intuitively accessed not only by scientists but by lay users as well. Whereas a democratic Mars promises users the ability to decide how to interact with the map and understand Mars, dynamic Mars imposes a more singular sense of Mars as a target of continued robotic and maybe even human exploration. Because maps of Mars have a different (and arguably less complex) set of social and political commitments than those of Earth, they help us see how different goals contradict and complement each other in matters of exploration and state-craft relevant both to other worlds and our own.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB974270108/

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Authors & Contributors
Bosse, David
N. King
Karen Rourke
John Delaney
Hornsby, Stephen J.
Barney, Timothy
Concepts
Maps; atlases
Cartography
Geography
Visual representation; visual communication
Nautical charts
Mars
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
17th century
Places
United States
South Carolina (U.S.)
New England (U.S.)
Boston (Massachusetts, U.S.)
Switzerland
New Jersey (U.S.)
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