Cross-Greenland Ski Trip Tracked with Google Maps

notmartinfrobisher writes "Around Guardian Mobility offices we have been excited to support an exploratory ski trip across Greenland. Anne Marte Pensgaard is skiing across Greenland with only a friend and some husky dogs for company. She has been outfitted with one of our Tracer units which has a GPS receiver and send data to our backoffice through Globalstars Low-earth orbit satellite network. We're tracking her progress using Google Maps and using MyGMaps. to map multiple points onto Google Map's satellite imagery. When asked about her trip Anne Marte wrote: "Our expedition consist of two phases. This year we (Marit and myself and 12 greenland huskies) are going to find a passage into the inland ice (the icecap itself) where we will be able to bring all the dogs and our sledges up on the ice. We will start in Ilulissat on the west coast and then travel north.(around 70degrees N) How far north we will go this year depends on the conditions. Our main expedition will be a more than 1000 km trip from Ilulissat to Qaanaq (Thule Air Base) in the north, either in 2006 or in 2007." We provided her with a Tracer unit set up to wake up every 30 minutes but to transmit only when she has moved at least 200m, this way she won't have to worry about turning off the unit when she's camping at night. We'll be updating you on this exciting trip by posting maps of her current location every couple of days. Maps and satellite imagery are courtesy Google Maps."

Comments

Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

I had to use Google Maps to make it through that paragraph.

Globalstar's coverage near the poles?

[_merlin]

I thought I read somewhere that because of the pitch of the GlobalStar satellites' orbits (they aren't quite polar), you get poor coverage near the poles. Or is this ski trip far enough from the pole to get good coverage.

Re:Globalstar's coverage near the poles?

[tylernt]

You appear to be correct, from the very bottom of this page: http://www.skycallcommunications.com/Coverage.html

Blatant Advertising

[fourtyfive]

Gee that wasnt blatant advertisement at all. I mean Come on the article is on the same page as the company that sells the freakin GPS unit.

Re:Blatant Advertising

[XorNand]

What's more, looks like the submitter created a /. account just to submit this story. ::rolls eyes::

The Slashdot helped cement the term "astroturfing" in the public vernacular back in the late 90's--the irony is so sharp it almost hurts. Just another example of how media placement has become the new norm on the 'net, since that whole advertising experiment didn't quite work out as expected.

Re:Blatant Advertising

[cdunworth]

Well, as long as we're just advertising in this thread....why not come by and try Earthcomber! (I'm one of the engineers there...)

We've built a free (as in beer) location finding utility with integrated mapping which runs on the PalmOS. Lets you mark spots out in the field (with or without GPS), then push them back to the mothership where you can share them with location-based interest groups in the Earthcomber Community area (think Yahoo Groups with maps). It's an early version, so we've got lots of issues (coverage area is US-only right now, our maps aren't the prettiest, the desired features list is a mile long, etc.).

And technically, you don't even need a Palm to use the interest groups -- we let you mark and view spots right on the web. But the Palm makes it cooler. You could use this to keep a travel log, go geocaching, start a group for great photography spots -- whatever you want. Come on by and let us know what you think. We'd love to get feedback from tech savvy users.

Regards,
-Chris

Re:Someone should suggest that

[fourtyfive]

I guess you didnt hear about this catastrophe... Dont ya hate it when the boat pops? Curiously it looks as if they were very close to shore... Like they hadn't left yet ;)

What reason for the trip again?

[switcha]

we have been excited to support an exploratory ski trip across Greenland ... onto Google Map's satellite imagery.

Maybe I'm a numbskull, but with Google Maps, I've done a full exploratory trip around my neighborhood; sidewalks, backyards, the whole shebang. Why not just call this out as a "publicity stunt" instead of calling it "exploring" the same snow and ice you can look at on a computer in front of a cozy fire with a hot chocolate?