help NASA map mars
apologies if this has been posted last month already...
http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/
The US space agency needs your help to explore Mars.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8364865.stm
A Nasa website called "Be A Martian" allows users to play games while at the same time sorting through hundreds of thousands of images of the Red Planet.
The number of pictures returned by spacecraft since the 1960s is now so big that scientists cannot hope to study them all by themselves.
The agency believes that by engaging the public in the analysis as well, many more discoveries will be made.
The new citizen-science website
http://BeAMartian.jpl.nasa.gov.
You count craters or align hi res photo data over low basically...and one day, years from now probably when we're dead and gone, some explorer could be using the data you helped out on!
My first thought was...Lord help that poor soul, LOL.You count craters or align hi res photo data over low basically...and one day, years from now probably when we're dead and gone, some explorer could be using the data you helped out on!
It is an interesting way to spend some extra time though.
“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden
* Rivengard * My Finished Maps * My Challenge Maps * My deviantArt
LOL that beeb image of the crater is the one I use to stick to my MDF sheets for warhammer 40K. I have lined up many a Drednaught on the inside of that !
Anyway, back on topic... its interesting that JPL are running this since they have great image processing tools. Microsoft had this utterly amazing video of some research they are doing. Now I forget which name it was but it was taking loads and loads of flickr images and aligning them up with some afine perspective corrections and merging them all together. So you had loads of different shots of some church and you could seamlessly zoom around the church going into features that other people had taken closer. Should not the same thing apply with craters. Maybe all the craters look the same even to a computer ???
Well I hope some people have more spare time than I have then.
Are you thinking of Panoramio ?Originally Posted by Redrobes
click on the 'Look Around' link
Yeah I love the idea of this mars thing, had a go,about 3 weeks ago but havent got the time since. It can become mind melting fairly quickly after the novelty wears off, but the odd session now and again ...if you have the time.
No I had a hunt and found it. It was photosynth but check out the SeaDragon at the same time. Even if something possesses you to stop part way through then check out from 3:15 or so onwards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKwTurQgiak
So this seems exactly what they are asking people to do.
It may be possible to do these things automatically in many cases, but the PR value of having lots of people look at what you're doing and having them feel invested in your work is invaluable. If someone has their kid say "Look, I did that" then it's good incentive for both parent and child to make an effort to keep the current and future space programs alive, even if there isn't a lot of scientific value.
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