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Space Science

Marsoweb 42

Posted by michael from the marzipan dept.
EyesWideOpen writes "Scientists preparing for Nasa's next Mars mission have created a website to help them choose potential landing sites on Mars. Marsoweb enables scientists to view more than 44,000 high-resolution images of the red planet; the images combine all the available data about the surface of Mars."
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Marsoweb More

Marsoweb

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  • Does the animated twinkling wallpaper somehow help?
    • of course it does.... It makes you feel like you've traveled a great distance through space to see mars, AND, makes you feel like NASA scientists are a creative group...

      The interactive map is actually quite fun - Where can I download the whole thing? - I want to carry it around on my laptop for those moments when the kids are bored.
    • here [geocities.com]

      I think there is a page that generates javascript for this.
  • "The aesthetic quality that Isidis, Melas, Eos, and Athabasca are just.. well, breathtaking, but the winds this time of year on Eos could just rip the head off a horse."

    Now this would be a good /. poll. Hematite has my vote. Cool name, best conditions according to this chart of rankings [nasa.gov].

  • From the BBC article (Score:4, Funny)

    by Aanallein ( 556209 ) on Saturday August 24, 2002 @08:16AM (#4132808)
    "Since its inception Marsoweb has been viewed by more than 44,000 distinct users, resulting in more than 1,880,000 hits," he adds.
    I'll see your 44,000... and triple it...

  • A good method of garnering public support (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cloudmark ( 309003 ) on Saturday August 24, 2002 @08:16AM (#4132809) Homepage
    All in all, not a bad idea. By involving members of the public in the mission and keeping them informed and interested, the mission planners can work towards guarantying broad public support. In an era of increasing fiscal restraint, that critical for the success of any lare-scale, high-cost initiative.

    This type of plan has worked for Zoos and other groups (post pictures of possible landscapes, get people's opinions, etc) so why not for the space program? Furthermore, the site does have intrinsic educational value and is a great resource for students, particularly at the post-secondary level.

    ~Cloudmark
  • Good find. Some bugs in thier html I noticed however. Anyways, good job finding those pictures.
  • that a big blue X marks the spot...
  • The next logical step would be to have a /. poll to vote on the landing site. Anyone know if there is a CowboyNeal plateau or volcano up there? What, you say no? Ah crap!
  • Methinks I smell the sickly scent of a public relations campaign. I mean, are we really supposed to believe, that, even with their huge budget, NASA is incapable of finding a good landing site on Mars? They already landed on the planet a few times, they know places it is possible. For a manned mission it may be a bit more complicated, with water (or ice) needed, and perhaps a few other things, but seriously, a website to decide this sort of stuff? They are showing, what was it, 44,000 images, to scientists who may find (at a guess) a few thousand possible landing sites. I am supposed to believe a NASA bigwig is going to say to his dedicated team, "Hold everything, we've just had an email from someone who works at a high school in Belgium. He reckons slide 38,233 is a good spot. That's the breakthrough we were looking for."
    Yeah, right!

    • Re:Billions of dollars, and this is what they plan (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You know what, pal... scientists need to get at this data, too, to help choose the site.

      NASA releases all of its space-exploration data publicly. So, why not have the web site containing the maps for the scientists be accessible to everyone?

      They could have easily locked this up behind a secure site. Instead, they used the Web for what it was originally intended for... the public dissemination of scientific data, to aide the scientific community.

    • So maybe they aren't planning on using the input of a high school kid in Belgium. But there are scientists out there with access to the web, too, I believe. Putting the information out to give everyone access is not just a good idea because it gives professionals everywhere access, but because it lets folks like us get excited about space! What nerd kid wouldn't be stoked about poring over NASA's mars data looking for a suitable landing site?

      This could be integrated into high school courses Earth Science classes, for major cool points. Intro astronomy classes in college could assign this as a fun project.

      And besides. Maybe there IS a high school kid in Belgium who has the intelligence, talent and time to find a great spot. The internet is beautiful and scary that way- information is no longer important based on source, it is important based on utility. But that is another topic.
  • Yet the website is crashing here on earth...
  • A Nasa website for scientists to help them chose potential landing sites on Mars is becoming a great hit with the public as well.

    Is that "chose" a freudian slip? This is all propaganda I say! They've already landed or, at least, chosen their site!

  • Mars Face (Score:2, Interesting)

    by naeger ( 136710 )
    Just curious: What happend to the famous Mars face popular in the late 80ies/early 90ies. I think it was just a natural landscape which coincidentally looked like a face on this particular picture because of the shadows. However, I haven't heard anything from the "face" for a long time. There should be other pictures from the same location by now. How do they look like? Are they on Marsoweb (can't get to the site it's /.ed)? Anyone with more information?

    • Re:Mars Face (Score:3, Informative)

      by Graspee_Leemoor ( 302316 )
      Nasa at first would not even speak about the face because they considered it perfectly obviously a natural formation, and therefore when they weren't considering it for a 2nd flyover the cospiricy theorists' alarms went off.

      In the end there was a 2nd flyover of the region and pictures of the same "face" were taken that showed it only looked like a face from the exact angle and time of day the original pictures were taken...

      graspee

    • Re:Mars Face (Score:2, Informative)

      by cethiesus ( 164785 )
      This [nasa.gov] is what it looks like without the shadows. (From 2001 Mars Global Surveyor)
    • yes it just looked like a face, in the right lighting the shadows made it look like it's a face looking formation.
    • <a href="http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/ima ges/4_6_face_release/">Here</a> it is:
  • you can fly around the proposed Melas Chasma landing site in 3D with this software.

    http://planet3d.demonews.com/PWMarsExplorer3.htm
    It needs a fast PC though.

    and here's a contour map of the Melas Chasma landing site (3Mb):
    http://planet3d.demonews.com/Melas%20Conto ur%20Map (200m).JPG
  • the images combine all the available data about the surface of Mars

    but does it contain data about where these guys [yahoo.com] are located, hmmm? i think not.

    before we collect these data, a mars mission is sure to be doomed to failure.

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