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Explore Mars with Maestro

Posted by michael on from the sim-mars dept.

The Maestro Team writes "NASA has released Maestro, a public version of the primary software tool used by scientists to operate the Mars Exploration Rovers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Anyone can download Maestro for free from mars.telascience.org and use it to follow along with the rovers' progress during the mission. You can use Maestro to view pictures from Mars in 2D and 3D and create simplified rover activity plans. During the mission, updates will be released for Maestro containing the latest images from Mars."

16 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. sloooow maestro by ruprechtjones · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think we just /.ed Mars...

    --
    Kip Hawley is an idiot.
    1. Re:sloooow maestro by Gleng · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, the ping times are a bitch.

      --
      "Proudly Posting Without Reading The Article"
  2. Miles Or Kilometers? by Silverkm · · Score: 5, Funny
    When creating the activity plans, is it miles or kilometers? Wouldn't want to crash into anything

    Overall Looks like an interesting idea, they should look into putting it in schools. Could be a very educational "toy" to play with.

    --
    "After I'm dead, I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one." - Cato the Elder, aka Marcu
  3. And here I thought... by Eberlin · · Score: 5, Funny

    All I needed to do was ssh to mars.rover.org and I can see a curses version of the 3D mars landscape. Fuel packs are depicted as % symbols. The rover is depicted as an @ sign.

    No, wait, come to think of it, that's nethack. A very good program to take up if you're one of the folks working with the Beagle2.

    1. Re:And here I thought... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 2, Funny

      A very good program to take up if you're one of the folks working with the Beagle2.

      I think they should take this up instead.

      --
      "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  4. Simulation by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Funny

    Anyone can download Maestro for free from mars.telascience.org and use it to follow along with the rovers' progress during the mission.

    Thanks to Slashdot, downloading Maestro also provides a vividly real simulation of the long months of space travel between Earth and Mars.

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  5. Damn backseat drivers by SuperBanana · · Score: 2, Funny

    Fantastic. It's the one in the "1 in 6" to make it, and it's just going to sit there quivering trying to figure out which of 1000 commands to follow!

    ("Back away from the reply button!" It's a joke. And yes, I've had people reply to jokes 'correcting' me and then amazingly get modded 'insightful' for it.)

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  6. Now if I could just tap into an uplink by core+plexus · · Score: 3, Funny
    I'd have the Ultimate RC Car! Oh, wait, 5 minutes to send the command until it receives it, and wait 5 more minutes to see what happened. Talk about an unacceptable frame rate! And it moves what, 150 feet per day? I do like the 'field geologist' aspect of it. I'm downloading the Linux version of it right now.

    -cp-

    President Bush to Liberate Alaska!

  7. Can we have rover races when they land? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Forget about the science, just have a couple of teams racing across the Martian landscape. We can call it Marscar.

  8. Re:Warning : Contains Virus. by Lispy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, the root password part is nasty but what kind of porn image exactly is it? ;-)

  9. Meanwhile, on the surface of Mars... by bckrispi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where's the "Kaboom"? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering "Kaboom". My Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator?! That Earth-creature has stolen the Space Modulator!!!!

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    Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
  10. *downloading* by Dreadlord · · Score: 3, Funny

    hold on Beagle 2 team! I'll explore Mars, see what happened to Beagle 2, and fix it ASAP!

    --
    The IT section color scheme sucks.
  11. Oopsie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Looks like we Beagle2'd(crashed) the server ^_^

  12. Demo Only by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Funny
    NASA's business model makes this kind of a rip off. In this space-aged version of "give away the razor, sell the blades", you don't actually get to run your own mission with this freebie software. Instead, all you get to do is watch as NASA calls all the shots for the two demo probes that are being sent to Mars this month. It's like they're handing out game consoles with no input controllers to go with them.

    What they don't tell you up front is that if you actually want to run your own mission, you're going to have to pony up at least $100 million to buy a probe of your own. NASA stands to make a pretty penny if they sucker many people to buy into this scheme.

  13. Re:Sounds cool by Kenja · · Score: 2, Funny

    Its red. It has rocks.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  14. Back up! by David+Prahl · · Score: 2, Funny

    The NASA server is back online - guess we'll land after all!