Ascent vs Mars Info Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ascent
Explore stunning Shuttle mission footage with commentary, additional scenes, and production notes. This educational compilation offers a deep dive into the STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions.
- Ground-based Shuttle motion imagery
- STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 mission footage
- Includes commentary
- Additional scenes
- Selected images
- Production notes
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Ascent is a compilation of film and video representing the best of the best ground based Shuttle motion imagery from the STS-114, STS-117, and STS-124 missions. This app includes the entire Ascent production with commentary, numerous additional scenes, selected images, and production notes.
Mars Info Lite
Explore the surface of the Red Planet with an interactive 3D globe. Discover significant locations like volcanoes, craters, and mountains, and view detailed information about each. This version offers a curated selection of points of interest.
- Interactive 3D Mars globe
- Rotate, tilt, and zoom controls
- Pinpoint key locations
- View location details (name, type, size, coordinates)
- List of selectable locations
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Explore Mars using simple gestures to rotate a globe, tilt, zoom and select locations. Credits - Viking Orbiter MDIM 2.1 map of Mars - NASA NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio: GMM-3 MOLA (Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter) Topography map GMM-3 Free-Air Mars Gravity map GMM-3 Bouguer Mars Gravity map GMM-3 Crustal Mars Thickness map Features: - Ability to pinpoint about 80 the most interesting areas on the map of Mars, including volcanos, craters, plains, mountains, spacecrafts. - Displaying some information about the location, such as its name, type, short description, size and coordinates. - Ability to select locations on the 3D globe and on the plain list. - Zoom, rotation, tilt of the globe. Lite version is limited to display 7 locations for each category, i.e. you will see 42 places vs 80 (currently) in a full version.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Mars Info Lite at every 3 months against Ascent's every 46 months. Mars Info Lite also leads on ratings volume (200 vs 16) and device support (4 vs 1). Ascent's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.4) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ascent holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mars Info Lite has 200 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 89% of Ascent's written reviews are positive against 96% of Mars Info Lite's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Ascent ships an update every 46 months, Mars Info Lite every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ascent | Mars Info Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (16 ratings) — better | 4.4 (200 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 89.5% of reviews | 96.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 16 | 200 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 46 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 731 MB | 210 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | NASA | Viktor Goltvyanytsya |
Customer experience
Ascent
Mars Info Lite
Bugs and requests
Ascent
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Mars Info Lite
Reported bugs
2 issues- Pinpoints shifted 90 degrees in longitude
- Crashes immediately on iPhone 4s
Requested features
4 requests- Implement geomorphology data
- Add ability to zoom out and see Mars alignment with other planets
- Add VR support
- Add apps for other planets
In-app purchases
Ascent
No in-app purchases
Mars Info Lite
No in-app purchases
