Planetary Exporation Program

Overview

Panning and Zooming
There are two ways to pan and zoom around the NASA data. One is to use the icons in the upper left corner of the main panel. The other way to pan and zoom uses the mouse on the map. To pan any point to the center of the map, just click on it. (Typically, I'll click on a feature to pan it to the middle of the display and then use the zoom in button to get a more detailed view). Another way pan and zoom the display is simply click and drag a rectangle. After you define the rectangle, the image will be changed so that small region fills the entire screen.
As you zoom the display, note the changing scale line (the line in the lower righthand corner). It is always 100 pixels long and under it is displayed how many kilometers that is at the current zoom level.

Adventure Button
When you select the Adventure icon, PEP will randomly pick a entry out of the Mars gazetteer take you to it.
(A gazetteer is a collection of named places or features. When data from a planetary probe is received, NASA scientists start identifying and naming features.)

Cross Section
To display an elevation cross section hold down the shift key and use the mouse to click and drag a line. As you're drawing the white reference line its elevation cross section is displayed using

Tour
When you click on this button, you'll get a quick tour of Mars, visiting many different kinds of geological features.

Gazetteer Labels
Often, as you explore a planet, you will see colored labels over or near geologic features. This are names have been assigned by scientists as they analyzed the data. The labels of impact craters are red, non-craters are in yellow. Larger features have larger labels. As you zoom out, all the labels might not be not displayed. This is done to keep the screen from being overwhelmed with label names.
To turn on the display of labels, select Layer on the menu bar and click on Gazetteer.

If you move the mouse over a feature, the title of the PEP window will change to tell you more about the feature. If you then hold down the "Shift" key and click on the name, a window will appear with many more details about the feature. That window looks like this:

3D View
After you've explored the map interface, try out the view from a virtual spaceship. Just click on 3D View-> Create and PEP will begin to construct a virtual Mars. After several dozen seconds, you'll be flying over another planet. If virtual planet runs too slowly on your machine you can adjust the parameters under 3D View->Create With Options to build a simplier world.