nasa / nasa/api-docs

Mars Rover Photos API listed as archived, community-maintained replacement available

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Description

The Mars Rover Photos API is currently listed as archived on api.nasa.gov, linking to https://github.com/corincerami/mars-photo-api, which the original maintainer stepped away from after several years.

I've built and have been actively maintaining an open source, free replacement that mirrors the original API's functionality and has continued to receive updates:

Live API: https://rovers.nebulum.one/
GitHub repo: https://github.com/nebulum-one/mars-photo-api

The documentation has also been expanded since the original, including clarifying which cameras produce color versus black and white images.

Since the current listing points to an archived project with no ongoing maintenance, I wanted to flag this here in case the apis.json listing could be updated to point to a maintained alternative, or the page could note that a community-maintained option exists.

For context, I also emailed hq-open-innovation@mail.nasa.gov about this a few months ago but haven't heard back, so I wanted to raise it here as well in case this repo is a better channel for this kind of update.

Happy to answer any questions or provide more info if useful.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the Mars Rover Photos API entry in apis.json and the corresponding api.nasa.gov documentation page. Confirm how archived services and community-maintained alternatives are represented, then update the listing or note to reference the maintained replacement and verify the rendered documentation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
68/100

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