Catalog of Planetary Maps
#554

Slipher, Earl C.

MEC-1 Prototype

Scale 1: 35 000 000

Marsmap

1962 · U. S. Air Force

MEC-1 Prototype

This map is the last product of the pre-space age maps, combining all possible knowledge to support the first space missions to Mars.

Cartographer: E C Slipher (Lowell Observatory)
Published by United States Air Force
Language of nomenclature: Latin
Scale: 1:35 000 000
Projection: Mercator
Date: 1962

mec-1

Source: Library of Congress.

 

 

During the "Next Nine" astronauts’ January 1963 visit to Lowell Observatory, staff briefed them on the observatory’s efforts to map the Moon and Mars. The astronauts examined maps of both the Moon and Mars to learn how to interpret geological and topographic features. Here, Lowell astronomer E.C. Slipher uses a pen to point out features on a Mars map as astronauts Tom Stafford (left) and Neil Armstrong (right) look on.

Credit: NASA Johnson Space Center S63-00916