Mars fever! New COSMOS app with A-Z of the Red Planet

The cover of the Mars issue of COSMOS on the iPad. Credit: COSMOS

After a 254-day journey, NASA’s $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory, with its giant robot rover Curiosity, will light up the skies above the planet as 76 rockets and pyrotechnic devices ignite in a rapid, heart-stopping descent and landing maneuver. About five times larger previous rovers, Curiosity carries over 10 times more instruments, and will spend a whole Martian year (or 687 days) exploring the planet in the search for life.

To celebrate, COSMOS Magazine has launched a special issue devoted entirely to Mars! It includes:
• 177 pages with hundreds of stunning images
• 14 videos and animations
• Live feeds to news and video of the landing on August 6
• Contour maps and stereographic projections
• Interactive fact files and pop-up breakouts
• A gallery of spectacular landscapes and sweeping vistas
• Curiosity‘s story – told in pictures
• Revealed: the cataclysmic impact that created the strange, lopsided world that Mars is today
• An interactive timeline of Mars exploration missions
• Living on Mars: how and when?
• Getting to Mars: the latest rocket technology profiled
• The trouble with space travel: why astronauts are worried about a voyage to Mars
• Should we colonize Mars?

Plus: A first-ever walk-through panorama of Mars, made up of 653 separate images – it’s the next best thing to being there!

All this in the July 2012 issue of COSMOS – now on iPad!

>>> DOWNLOAD THE ISSUE HERE

>>> Watch a video of the COSMOS app in action

RECOGNITION & ACCOLADES

COSMOS app rated ★★★★★

The COSMOS Magazine iPad app, first launched in June 2012, was given a 5-star rating by McPheters & Co, publisher of the iMonitor List of Best Magazine Apps for iPad, which scores each app based on its design, functionality and use of rich media content. It called the COSMOS Magazine iPad app “the most outstanding of the recent batch of introductions” and added: “Some apps transcend national borders more readily than others, and the app from this internationally acclaimed title is definitely in the category of those that transcend.”

Users who have downloaded the COSMOS Magazine iPad app have been laudatory, with the average of 52 reviews ranking it five stars on the App Store.

Sir Richard Branson recommends COSMOS!

In his daily blog, Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, endorsed COSMOS Magazine iPad app, calling it “a beautifully designed read and covers everything from evolution to cutting edge new discoveries”. He also linked on the magazine’s page on Apple’s App Store. This was followed by a tweet to his 2.2 million followers, and a posting on his Facebook page (233,591 fans) and Google + (2.1 million fans).

In his blog, he wrote: “For those who are fascinated by science, I can heartily recommend the new COSMOS iPad magazine. It’s a beautifully designed read and covers everything from evolution to cutting edge new discoveries. The app itself is free, and there’s a free issue to download and try. Enjoy!”

See the original blog here – http://bit.ly/LqB6Wk

BACKGROUND ON COSMOS MAGAZINE

COSMOS is Australia’s #1 science media brand: the biggest-circulation science magazine and highest-rating science news site. Its publisher, Cosmos Media, was founded by three people: Melbourne neuroscientist and entrepreneur Dr Alan Finkel, publishing executive Kylie Ahern and science journalist Wilson da Silva. COSMOS is the brainchild of da Silva, a past president of the World Federation of Science Journalists and a former science reporter at Australia’s ABC TV. It is backed by an Editorial Advisory Board that includes Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

For more information, please visit http://bit.ly/PYsBQl

FOR COMMENT, INTERVIEWS, ETC

Call Arnold Perez at COSMOS on +61 2 9310 8510 or email publicity_at_cosmosmagazine.com.
Available for interview:
• Wilson da Silva, Editor-in-Chief: What’s in the issue, how to create a successful iPad app.
• Heather Catchpole, Managing Editor: What’s in the issue, creating engaging iPad content.
• Kylie Ahern, CEO of Cosmos Media: The company’s global strategy for the tablet market.