Professor Jie Shan has received a grant from NASA. His team will be working on Mars topographic mapping using orbital imagery and laser ranging, and the calibration of the instruments aboard.

The recent Mars exploration missions are able to produce accurate and high resolution control network and geospatial products. However, several significant errors or offsets in time and pointing have been found among the mapping data and results. Their behavior and causes are not fully understood. As a consequence, not all Mars mapping data can be used and the resultant geospatial products have considerable inconsistency. Prof. Shan and his team will study and determine such inconsistency by taking advantage of the large amount of available redundant data. The outcome of this study will be used to update the current geospatial products and benefit the entire Mars community.