Marsoweb

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."

Comments

From the BBC article

[Aanallein]

"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

[Cloudmark]

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

Re:Mars Face

[Graspee_Leemoor]

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