Mapping

Elektra Solar demonstrated the capabilities of the company's Elektra One Solar​ aircraft earlier this month by mapping an historic German town in 3D. The low cost, low noise electric-solar aircraft was able to circulate silently just 300 meters over the town while it scanning the landscape below.

​Tracking air pollution in a city can be an inexact science but researchers have now explored a way to offer block-by-block, highly localized data, and it involves fitting out Google Street View vehicles with air pollution monitors as they roam around town.

Combining elevation data gathered by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter with Earth topography data, NASA researchers have produced the most accurate map ever created for the path of totality​ of the total solar eclipse that will be seen across a large swath of the United States later this year.

Parrot's newly-announced S.L.A.M.dunk is a development kit for drones equipped with hardware that suggests a particular focus on obstacle avoidance and navigation, but doubles as a desktop computer as well. ​

Astronomers say they've made the most precise measurements to date of dark energy, while pinpointing the positions of 1.2 million galaxies in the largest ever 3D map of the universe. The map covers over a quarter of the sky, spanning a volume of 650 cubic billion light years.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have come up with a novel way of improving robots' inspection and manipulation skills. The team fitted a small camera to the hand of the machine, allowing it to quickly track its environment and the position of the hand in real time.

​Using data captured by NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, a team of scientists has constructed the first complete digital elevation model (DEM) of the planet Mercury.

In large supermarkets carrying thousands of goods, even employees can have trouble remembering where everything is. That's why Toronto's 4D Retail Technology Corp. developed the stock-taking, store-mapping 4D Space Genius robot.​

Britain's Ordnance Survey (OS) has released its first map of Mars to examine the potential of the agency's advanced cartographic methods in creating detailed, easy to understand maps for planning future missions to the Red Planet.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has begun the process of transferring to its fourth and final mapping orbit, as it continues its mission around the dwarf planet Ceres.

Having already provided us with numerous insights into the nature of the dwarf planet Ceres, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is ready to move into a new, lower mapping orbit, which will provide the most detailed views so far.

ESA's Sentinel-2A satellite has arrived safely in French Guiana, ahead of its June 12 launch atop a Vega rocket. It was carried in the belly of an enormous Russian-made Antonov cargo plane, and protected within a specially-constructed air conditioned habitat.