About Trawers

Trawers is a free 3D browser game where you drive a rover across the real Mars at real scale. How it works, how to play, frequently asked questions and data credits.

Trawers puts the whole of Mars in your browser at real scale. Pick a landing site, land your rover and start driving. Every crater, hill and canyon comes from real orbital data, and every kilometre on the map is a real kilometre on Mars.

The idea is simple: something real that is almost impossible to finish. A full lap of the planet takes more than a year of real time. Short goals, achievements and hidden surprises along the way keep it fun in the meantime.

How to play

1. Choose where to land. Start at one of nine real landing sites, from Viking 1 in 1976 to Perseverance in 2021, or pick any spot on the globe.
2. Drive. Plan a route on the map and send it to the rover, or drive directly with W A S D or the arrow keys. The rover keeps driving in real time even when you close the game.
3. Switch units. Hop out as an astronaut to walk, or take the shuttle to fly over the terrain.
4. Explore. Every 100 × 100 m square you visit counts towards your exploration score. Find panoramas taken by real rovers at the places where they were shot, and look for hidden easter eggs.
5. Compete and team up. Climb the leaderboard of the longest distance driven, join a team and help reach the weekly community goal.

Frequently asked questions

Is Trawers free?

Yes. The game is free to play in any modern browser. Optional extras, such as adopting a symbolic parcel or supporting the project on Ko-fi, help cover hosting costs.

Do I need to download anything or create an account?

No. Trawers runs in the browser with WebGL. You can play straight away as a guest; an optional account, by email code, keeps your mission and lets you play on several devices.

Is the map real?

Yes. Colour comes from global Mars mosaics, heights from the MOLA laser altimeter, and the landing regions use detailed CTX and HiRISE imagery and terrain models. Real rover routes and panoramas are shown where they were recorded. Full sources are listed below.

How fast does the rover drive?

The game rover drives at 9 km/h (2.5 m/s), much faster than the real Perseverance, which manages about 0.15 km/h. Distances are real, so a full lap of Mars takes more than a year.

Does the rover keep driving when I close the game?

Yes. The rover's position is computed from time, so a route you send keeps going while the page is closed, just like a real rover following commands from Earth.

Is Trawers made by NASA?

No. Trawers is an independent educational project, not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA. It uses publicly available NASA data, credited below.

Can I buy land on Mars?

No one can own land on Mars. A Trawers parcel (100 × 100 m in Jezero Crater, from 1 USD) is a symbolic adoption inside the game: your name on the map and a respawn point. The rest of the planet is divided into 14,374 territories of about 100 × 100 km, whose patrons (from 29 USD) are named on the globe. Neither is land ownership or an investment. See the globe.

Can I use Trawers in class?

Yes, and it stays free for schools and educators. See the page for teachers for lesson ideas.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes, on most recent phones and tablets. A computer with a keyboard gives the best driving experience.

Who makes it

Trawers is created by Jakub Kol, a Polish researcher and university lecturer who works on the digital economy and on how people take part in digital culture and education. Trawers is his science-outreach project: real scientific data turned into a place where anyone can explore Mars on their own. Follow along on Instagram or support the project on Ko-fi. For media enquiries see the press kit.

Credits

Independent educational project. Not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA. Uses publicly available NASA data.

Imagery

• Global colour mosaic: Viking MDIM 2.1 colourised, NASA/USGS Astrogeology
• Regional mosaics: THEMIS, NASA/JPL/Arizona State University, coloured with the Viking mosaic
• CTX: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems; HiRISE: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona; via the USGS Astrogeology Science Center

Elevation

• MOLA, NASA/GSFC; Mars shape model by M. Wieczorek (2024, Zenodo)
• CTX and HiRISE terrain models: USGS Astrogeology / University of Arizona

Rover photos and routes

• Perseverance panoramas: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU (Mastcam-Z); Curiosity panoramas: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (Mastcam); via NASA Photojournal
• Rover traverses: NASA/JPL-Caltech MMGIS waypoint data

3D models

• Perseverance rover: NASA/JPL-Caltech 3D model (agency logos removed)
• Astronaut: rigged and animated model from Sketchfab (Standard licence); walking animation made for this game
• Shuttle: 3D scan of the Space Shuttle Discovery, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Open Access (public domain); simplified, markings removed

Software

• three.js (MIT licence); fonts: Saira Condensed, Atkinson Hyperlegible, IBM Plex Mono (SIL Open Font License)

Mars weather in the game is a simplified seasonal model, not a forecast.

Made by Jakub · trawers.space