The Access Mars immersive photography of the Red Planet features some of the most important locations from the mission the Curiosity Rover undertook when it landed on Mars on August 5, 2012.

Highlighting key points of interest, this Mars lander mission shows the true Mars surface (not a fictionalized movie or television rendering of it). As Photographed by the Curiosity Rover. Used by NASA JPL scientists, you can explore Mars now through your web browser.

Geologically, Mars and Earth share a lot of common traits, and they are both known as terrestrial (or rocky) planets. The majority of the rocks at the surface of both planets are of the igneous (derived from lava or magma) variety. Some familiar places on Earth are often used by scientists as comparable examples for the kinds of environments that exist on Mars. Examples include Iceland, Antarctica, the Atacama Desert in Chile, Arizona, and Hawaii.

From over 200,000 photographs that were taken by the Curiosity Rover that landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, they have been stitched together and transformed into a 3D model of portions of the Martian surface.

NASA JPL engineers transform these photos to study the surface of Mars, and they will enable everyday viewers of the immersive photography to explore Mars now without having to consider a Blue Origin or SpaceX to Mars space flight and the cost factor involved.

Access Mars is a collaboration between NASA, Jet Propulsion Lab, and Google Creative Lab to bring the real surface of Mars to your browser. It is an open-source project released as a WebVR Experiment.

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Explore Mars surface through 360 degree photography – Access Mars