You Can Explore Mars Yourself Using NASA’s Curiosity Simulator

Ever since NASA managed to successfully land the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars, everyone’s been paying close attention to its progress, and I have to admit that the little robot did a very good job at exploring this relatively close yet very estranged planet. I’m sure that humanity will be able to admire Mars’ unique landscape personally one day, but until then, we can actually go about exploring Mars from the comfort of our own homes thanks to a pair of interactive web applications created by NASA.

One of these applications is called Mars Trek, and it is basically a Google Earth version of the planet. It compiles over 50 years of exploration data into an interactive 3D globe, which features video-game inspired controls as well as several bookmarks for various points of interest. Those of you who are looking for a more personal experience will probably want to try out the Experience Curiosity program, which is a Curiosity simulator. This program features different camera view angles, a guided tour and manual controls. What’s really great is the fact that both of these applications are free to use and are designed to work just fine in pretty much any browser.

Thank you Engadget for providing us with this information.