[meteorite-list] New Online Exploring Tools Bring NASA Journey's to Mars to New Generation

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2015 17:12:40 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201508060012.t760CexQ012707_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4680

New Online Exploring Tools Bring NASA Journey's to Mars to New Generation
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 5, 2015

On the three-year anniversary of the Mars landing of NASA's Curiosity
rover, NASA is unveiling two new online tools that open the mysterious
terrain of the Red Planet to a new generation of explorers, inviting the
public to help with its journey to Mars.

Mars Trek is a free, Web-based application that provides high-quality,
detailed visualizations of the planet using real data from 50 years of
NASA exploration and allowing astronomers, citizen scientists and students
to study the Red Planet's features.

Experience Curiosity allows viewers to journey along with the one-ton
rover on its Martian expeditions. The program simulates Mars in 3-D based
on actual data from Curiosity and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO),
giving users first-hand experience in a day in the life of a Mars rover.

A NASA team already is using Mars Trek to aid in the selection of possible
landing sites for the agency's Mars 2020 rover, and the application will
be used as part of NASA's newly announced process to examine and select
candidate sites for the first human exploration mission to Mars in the
2030s.

"This tool has opened my eyes as to how we should first approach roaming
on another world, and now the public can join in on the fun," said Jim
Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "Our
robotic scientific explorers are paving the way, making great progress
on the journey to Mars. Together, humans and robots will pioneer Mars
and the solar system."

Mars Trek has interactive maps, which include the ability to overlay a
range of data sets generated from instruments aboard spacecraft orbiting
Mars, and analysis tools for measuring surface features. Standard keyboard
gaming controls are used to maneuver the users across Mars' surface, and
3-D printer-exportable topography allows users to print physical models
of surface features.

Mars Trek was developed by NASA's Lunar Mapping and Modeling Project,
which provides mission planners, lunar scientists and the public with
analysis and data visualization tools for our moon.

Experience Curiosity also uses real science data to create a realistic
and game-ready rover model based entirely on real mechanisms and executed
commands. Users can manipulate the rover's tools and view Mars through
each of its cameras.

"We've done a lot of heavy 3-D processing to make Experience Curiosity
work in a browser. Anybody with access to the Web can take a journey to
Mars," said Kevin Hussey, manager of the Visualization Applications and
Development group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California,
which manages and operates the Curiosity rover.

Curiosity's adventures on the Red Planet began in the early morning hours
of Aug. 6, 2012, Eastern time (evening of Aug. 5, Pacific time), when
a landing technique called the sky-crane maneuver deposited the rover
in the 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater. From there, the
rover began investigating its new home, discovering it had landed near
an ancient lakebed sprinkled with organic material. Billions of years
ago, fresh water would have flowed into this lake, offering conditions
favorable for microbial life.

"At three years old, Curiosity already has had a rich and fascinating
life. This new program lets the public experience some of the rover's
adventures first-hand," said Jim Erickson, the project manager for the
mission at JPL.

NASA has been on Mars for five decades with robotic explorers, and August
traditionally has been a busy month for exploration of the planet. Viking
2 was put into orbit around Mars 39 years ago on Aug. 7, 1976, making
NASA's second successful landing on the Martian surface weeks later. Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on Aug. 12, 2005, and still is in
operation orbiting Mars. And Tuesday, Aug. 4, marked the eight-year anniversary
of the launch of the Phoenix mission to the north polar region of the
Red Planet.

NASA's orbiters and rovers have changed the way we look at Mars and enable
continued scientific discoveries that one day will pave the way for astronauts
to explore the Red Planet.

More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars

For more information about Curiosity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/msl
http://mars.nasa.gov/msl

To download and print a 3-D model of Curiosity, go to:

http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/mars-rover-curiosity


Media Contact

Guy Webster / Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278 / 818-354-4673
guy.w.webster at jpl.nasa.gov / whitney.clavin at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov

2015-258
Received on Wed 05 Aug 2015 08:12:40 PM PDT