Cosmos Magazine 360˚ Mars

COSMOS is Australia’s #1 science media brand: the biggest-circulation science magazine and highest-rating science news site. Its publisher, Cosmos Media, was founded by three people: Melbourne neuroscientist and entrepreneur Dr Alan Finkel, publishing executive Kylie Ahern and science journalist Wilson da Silva. COSMOS is the brainchild of da Silva, a past president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and a former science reporter at Australia’s ABC TV. It is backed by an Editorial Advisory Board that includes Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

July 2012 iPad issue - The red planet mars

ON AUGUST 6 2012 the most advanced space probe ever will land on the Red Planet and try and answer a very big question: is there, or has there ever been, life on Mars?

After a 254-day journey, NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, with its giant robot rover Curiosity, will light up the skies above the planet as 76 rockets and pyrotechnic devices ignite in a rapid, heart-stopping descent and landing manoeuvre. About five times larger previous rovers, Curiosity carries over 10 times more instruments, and will spend a whole Martian year (or 687 days) exploring the planet in the search for life.

To celebrate the event, COSMOS Magazine launched a special issue devoted entirely to Mars including a first-ever walk-through panorama of Mars, made up of 653 separate images.