The map is the work of Eleanor Lutz of Tabletop Whale, who used NASA data to complete the full map. “I picked the style because I thought the project had a similar perspective as cartographers in the old days. We were both trying to draw new worlds that hadn’t been fully explored, with missing data and expeditions constantly bringing back new information,” Lutz told Gizmodo.
There’s been a series of newly-styled Mars maps lately—in addition to this one from Lutz, a recent ESA map showed Mars in a modern roadmap style. It’s not just a coincidence that Mars is suddenly the hot spot to map. It says something about the change in what Mars means to us.