Looks like Google isn’t satisfied with having the entire world on the Internet as satellite imagery. They want other worlds as well!

Google would not stop at Earth satellite imagery, maps and all, showcased in its highly popular (and very cool) Google Earth and its web-counterpart Google Maps. The search leader has also recently come up with Google Mars! Mars, you say? What interest could a normal human being possibly have over Mars’s topography?

Well, it seems that Google feels that exploring the Red Planet is important enough to the regular Joe. They’ve collaborated with NASA researchers at the Arizona State University to come up with detailed scientific maps of Mars.

What do you get from Google Mars? We’ve been doing some exploration and we’re impressed with the detail of the imagery, which rivals satellite captures of Earth locations. Of course, at first glance, one couldn’t make heads nor tails of what exactly is onscreen—they’re mostly masses of craters and mountains.

Also, it’s not a hundred percent like Google Earth or Google Maps, in that instead of maps, you get “elevation” and “infrared” views along with the satellite images. And then, of course, instead of specifying streets and cities, you browse according to terrestrial features such as mountains, ridges and the like, and other man-made features, such as stories and spacecraft.

Here are some features of Google Mars from the FAQ:

Views:

• Elevation – This is a map colored according to altitude, from data generated by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimiter.
• Visible – This shows satellite imagery captured by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Orbit Surveyor craft.
• Infrared – This shows thermal emission imaging, where warm and cool areas are differentiated.

Some views of Google Mars are in black and white, particularly the visible view. This is actually to highlight detail (as visual specialists would tell you that you get to see more detail in greyscale).

You can also browse for locations according to these topographical characteristics or other features:

• Regions
• Spacecraft
• Stories
• Mountains
• Canyons
• Dunes
• Plains
• Ridges
• Craters

Click on any of these categories, and Google Mars will show you a list of possible areas, with matching stories or descriptions. For instance, clicking on spacecraft will give you a list of about 36 spacecraft and the stories behind their missions—some were successful, while some were lost.

Of course, the Web interface is very limited, and you can’t beat the cool things you can do with the Google Earth desktop client, such as change angles and simulate fly-throughs. Google is hence developing a similar version for Google Mars; or maybe they’ll make the Mars data work on the existing Google Earth client (a better option, in our opinion).

Next, we’ll probably read about speculations on Martian habitats (like the “search for Black Helicopters” features on Google Maps).