92k Mars Color Map

Need to produce stunning images of Mars but all you can find are old low-resolution textures on websites long forgotten by time, or a wild maze of links to scientific archives with horrific naming and obscure file extensions? Not to worry, I've done all of that for you and you can now just skip to the fun part of creating great visuals.

Creating planetary imagery is a strong passion of mine and to produce the best possible results you need the highest quality source material. I've poured countless hours into acquiring, processing and converting planetary maps into formats usable by artists, and that work has translated into what some may call ludicrous textures. I call it future proof.

This color map was derived from the data gathered by three separate orbiters: Vikings 1 and 2 way back in the 1970's and Mars Global Surveyor which obtained imagery of the planet from 1997 to 2006, when a software error caused a loss of contact.

From this data I've painstakingly stitched together and cleaned up a very high quality color map of the entire Mars. The maximum resolution is ridiculously high at 92160 by 46080, which means the detail level is amazing and stands up to close scrutiny. Every crater, mountain, plateau and ancient riverbed is represented in the map, creating an intricately detailed landscape you could easily admire for hours.

Please note that due to the nature of the projection the accuracy of the map is lower the closer you get to the poles. The resolution should still be more than sufficient for high quality closeups.

You can find some neat renders I made with the map on my ArtStation page: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/r2ZX2