[meteorite-list] NASA Invites Public to Explore Mars Via Internet

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Jul 30 16:23:45 2004
Message-ID: <200407302023.NAA16002_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.arc.nasa.gov/aboutames-pressrelease.cfm?id=15000147

John Bluck
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650-604-5026 or 650-604-9000
Email: jbluck_at_mail.arc.nasa.gov

NASA INVITES PUBLIC TO EXPLORE 'RED PLANET' VIA INTERNET
July 29, 2004

NASA scientists have modified a scientific Web site so the general
public can inspect big regions and smaller details of Mars' surface, a
planet whose alien terrain is about the same area as Earth's continents.

After adding 'computer tools' to the 'Marsoweb' Internet site, NASA
scientists plan to ask volunteers from the public to virtually survey
the vast red planet to look for important geologic features hidden in
thousands of images of the surface. The Web site is located at:

http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/landingsites/index.html

"The initial reason to create Marsoweb was to help scientists select
potential Mars landing sites for the current Mars Exploration Rover
(MER) mission," according to Virginia Gulick, a scientist from the SETI
Institute, Mountain View, Calif., who works at NASA Ames Research
Center, located in California's Silicon Valley. "The Web site was
designed just for Mars scientists so they could view Mars data easily,"
she added.

But when the first Mars Exploration Rover landed on Mars in January, the
general public discovered Marsoweb. More than a half million 'unique
visitors' found the page, and the Web experienced about 26.7 million
'hits' in January.

"An interactive data map on Marsoweb allows users to view most Mars data
including images, thermal inertia, geologic and topographical maps and
engineering data that includes rock abundance," Gulick said. Thermal
inertia is a material's capacity to store heat (usually in daytime) and
conduct heat (often at night). "The engineering data give scientists an
idea of how smooth or rocky the local surface is," Gulick explained.

To examine a large number of distinctive or interesting geologic
features on the red planet close up would take an army of people because
Mars' land surface is so big. Such a multitude of explorers - modern
equivalents of America's early pioneers - may well survey details of
Mars through personal computers.

Researchers hope that volunteers will help with an upcoming Mars imaging
experiment. NASA scientists are getting ready for the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that will fly on the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, slated for launch in August 2005.
Gulick, co-investigator and education and public outreach lead of the
HiRISE team, said that the experiment's super high-resolution camera
will be able to capture images of objects on Mars' surface measuring
about a yard (one meter) wide.

User-friendly 'Web tools' soon will be available to the science
community and the public to view and analyze HiRISE images beginning in
November 2006 and to submit image observation requests, according to
HiRISE scientists. If all goes according to plan, a request form will be
on the Internet for use by scientists and the public about the time of
the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launch in 2005. Marsoweb computer
scientist Glenn Deardorff, Gulick and other HiRISE team members are now
designing Web-friendly software 'tools' to allow the public to examine
and evaluate HiRISE images.

"We will ask volunteers to help us create 'geologic feature' databases
of boulders, gullies, craters - any kind of geologic feature that may be
of interest," Gulick explained. "Scientists or students can use these
data bases to propose theories about Mars that could be proven by future
exploration."

Preliminary details about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE's
exploration of Mars are on the World Wide Web at:

http://marsoweb.nas.nasa.gov/hirise/

The current Marsoweb site includes animated 'fly-throughs' of some Mars
locations. The site also permits users to fine-tune Mars images for
brightness, contrast and sharpness as well as make other adjustments.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, operated by the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Exploration Rover
and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions for the NASA Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C.
Received on Fri 30 Jul 2004 04:23:40 PM PDT