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Google Goes to Mars
Kynn writes "Google has launched Google Mars, based on the work done by Arizona State University's THEMIS researchers. With an AJAX-driven interface based on Google Maps (and Google Moon), you can search the Red Planet in false-color elevation, black-and-white visual, or infrared. Be sure to check out the so-called Face, the landing sites for Spirit and Opportunity, and the Polar Lander."
Unfortunately, after sorting through the list of stories and finding #116 (The Face on Mars) and #118 (The So-Called Face on Mars), I could only make out the mound when looking in infrared. Also confusing is that two different locations are given (40.68N, 9.54W & 40.75N, 9.46W with the latter looking to be the correct location).
The level of detail you can see is not very high so you really shouldn't check out the face; just visit one of the above websites.
Instead of that boring face, check out The Happy Face Crater (#117 in the list of stories). Now that is one content crater. Put that image in tie-dye relief colors, screen it on a t-shirt and you've got one product that will sell to millions of hippies world-wide.
Let me see, if I know my European history, here's the business model
1. Send explorer, make him bring back maps with everything named in my language. Check.
2. Identify resources.
3. Send less friendly "traders" to said foreign land & requisition land from natives by asking chiefs to sign "treaties" in a language they don't understand (legalese).
4. Make sure the rest of the world doesn't know what you're doing. Masks of philanthropy or the spread of some major religion work the best.
5. Do not forget that manpower is a resource and is yours for the taking. The best kind of manpower is free manpower.
6. Sap land of all resources (Profit!).
7. Discard
When I looked at the map, I didn't see any dividing lines or (most importantly) flags. Does anyone want to visit Mars to open trade and represent king eldavojohn?
I'm reminded of a Cecil Rhodes Quote:
My work here is dung.
this is tremedously useful.
this really ought to relieve wall street's anxiety.
seriously.
real estate on mars, huge in 120 years. google's wayyyy ahead of the game.
Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".
O. Wyss
See http://wyoguide.sf.net/papers/Cross-platform.html
I really like the Elevation/Visible/Infrared options - I wonder if they have similar data for Earth? It would be fascinating to study a city in infrared.
Of course, they have elevation data for the executable Google Earth but it would also be interesting to see a colour map.
Looks really good this new Google Mars thing, hopefully the new project Google does will be Jupiter, then we can really explore the storms and the new Red Jr.
My blog: http://www.redcode.nl
A +5 Informative moderation to the first Slashdotter poring over these Mars maps to find out where the hell Beagle II got to!
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Notice that if you zoom in Google Moon, you see that the moon is made of cheese. It's a joke you see, the moon isn't really made of cheese. However, if you zoom in on Google Mars, you don't see little green men. Don't you think that's suspicious? Surely if it were untrue, Google would have included it. Therefore we have conclusive evidence that Mars is full of little green men!!! The martian govenment are clearly colluding with Google to censor the Google Mars results!
...there are robots running wild, overstaying their welcome.
But seriously, they should send the next lander to the highest elevation on Olympus Mons and then take some panoramic shots and see what is in the Caldera. You could get a shot from 22km elevation from Mars' surface, I think this would be very interesting.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Zooming all the way out, it seems the entrie southern hmisphere has a greater elevation than the northern one. Doesn't that just mean they've got the center wrong? Not tryng to be a wise-ass, just curious what the explenation is.
sudo ergo sum
Time to play spot the martian!
You know, as much as humans have screwed up the Earth, we've also made it interesting. I find the architecture and placement of buildings/roads/other man-made monuments to be the most interesting things on Google Maps. Google Moon is rather boring in comparison.
The "elevation" view shows a range of elevations; 21km to -9km or roundabouts. What I want to know, is how do you define "sea level" on Mars? What is the elevation above or below measured against?
I'm just wondering whether anybody on /. thinks that Google profits monetarily from doing things like gMoon and gMars. It fosters good will in the scientific/education community. But what other ways could Google benefit from projects like these?
Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".
Is the answer to life, the universe and everything close enough?
would limit the visibility, though...
IANAMS, I'm not sure which season would bring more clear atmosphere. Maybe some one would bring some knowledge into the thread?
At last I can unlock the mysteries of the blue, green and orange planet, Mars!
Actually this is kind of cool, but strange that it defaults to the colored elevation map.
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
Another post on a comparison of how large Olympus Mons is.
World Wind has many Mars add-ons already... And I have heard that Venus may also show up in 3D with World Wind 1.3.4's release. You can install it as an add-on now sans 3D data.
Somebody is taking his advice.
That's two planets down. How many generations of this software before we get the Galactic Lens of Foundation fame?
I can see my house from here!
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Neat. Finally found my house.
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
I read numerous books as a kid which assured me that by now people should be living on mars, I should be able to holiday on the moon, and that trains would be attached to sky high buildings.. I am feeling rather let down.. At least if a 3D version of google mars and moon was created I could pretend... Why can't i turn around in google earth and navigate towards other planets? Damn it. I'm getting old I can't wait much longer! Modern technology is rather disappointing. I consider mankind primitive until we have halted the aging process, created attractive slave robots with intellect exceeding albert einstein's, and are all wearing designer label virtual reality contact lenses with 500x built in zoom. Ah well I can always dream...
. That would be cool! Glide over cm and cm of your favourite babe.
Grits extra.
Gleek that, double gleek!
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
Interesting. Seems like an amazing coincidence that the triple-point of water serves as a useful "sea level" on Mars.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Where's Marvin and his Illudium Pu-36 explosive space modulator? And how about Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium?
What kind of bogus Mars search engine is this if it can't find Marvin and Dejah? I bet MSN Mars Search (being rushed out any day now) has them.
I zoomed all the way in, expecting to see a uniform plain of chocolate snacks. Judging by the colors, the truth is much less palatable.
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
What's the resolution? There is no ruler/scale displayed. And come on, the amount of details is far better than Google Map's resolution on Sweden (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=sweden&ll= 55.728657,13.257751&spn=1.006855,2.510376). Seriously!
it is the first non-beta Google new product in years.
Has been up for a couple of years here.
So when is a more enterprising user than I going to map out the significant locations in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy? Even with the maps included with the book, I had a hard time keeping the character's locations straight.
Why the hell don't the driving directions work?!?!
Try my Java web-start version with the global MOLA data.
hmm...i thought spirit and opportunity landed on (diametrically) opposite faces of mars...looks like longitudinally they just landed 10 degrees apart (something like new york-boston on mars scale)...
My sig has been answered.
R. Francis Smith of Sturgeon's Law has a podcast interview with Noel Gorelick of Arizona State University -- the guy behind Google Mars -- who discusses the technical and scientific background behind the project. Listen to it here.
Kynn's page: http://kynn.com/
I really hope the data from the latest Mars probe gets included in this when it starts sending back pictures.
Equipped with the most powerful telescopic camera yet sent to a foreign world, the craft, known as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is expected to photograph the Red Planet in unprecedented detail.
Its onboard optics can spot an object "as small as a kitchen table" on the surface as it cruises 300 kilometres overhead, said Robert Lock, the lead mission planner.
Let me be the first to say "cooooooool." We're gonna see a pile of little craters, cracks, busted probes, missile silos and little green men mooning the satelite!
Realtime 3d renders of global Mars MOLA data are here. It's a Java Web Start app with OpenGL, and will run from most browsers in Windows and Linux (including Linux on AMD 64).
When are we getting maps of the ocean floor her on Terra? WAY more interesting than Mars - we might actually get to go to the bottom of the ocean in the next hundred years!
those were the only things I was going to look for
This message was brought to you by the Uranus-Ad-Nauseum department of the Crap Old Jokes of Connecticut Corporation, a Family Friendly Company.
Try "russia*" to catch both "russia" and "russian", for example.
DiscDividers tabbed plastic CD dividers: divider cards f
Today is, not coincidentally, Percival Lowell's 151st birthday.
I love these revisionist views. But what do they really say? 1. So if a German, Iranian, or African discovers a new feature on Mars, what is the preferred language they should name the feature? Native Martian or English? Certainly, they shouldn't name it in their own language. Maybe we could make up a "real" Martian language. But who would make it up? Maybe we could just point. 2. Explorers should always ignore resources. Resources are evil. Come to think of it, exploration is evil. All of the moral elite believe this. 3. Does this mean that if I get to Mars first, that you have no moral right to it? If so, then cool. 4. Of course changing the world into one's own image of good is evil. But since it is going to be transformed into someone's image anyway, whose should it be? Note that answering this question is evil. 5. I think you're referring to slavery here. Ok, I'll agree, slavery is bad. And, yes, I'll even go as far as imposing my morality on others about this. Even on Mars. 6. Yup, "all" the Earth's resources are gone. There's nothing left, and it's been that way for twenty years (at least that's what they told me in high school). And now we're about to do the same to Mars. 7. I guess that means that Liberals are evil, right?
Now if Google will add voice calls to mars in thier Gtalk application and support Google account sign up for folks from mars, i can finally contact my folks back home!
-
IMHO, every sig should be encrypted and $x\|å:ÛNË{ÛN,ùàr}Y
Where's "find businesses" and "get directions?" This map is useless to me!
// This is not a sig.
Microsoft, in response to the recent launch of the Mars version of Google Map's has anounced it's plan's, under direct orders from Ballmer to launch a small rocket with a payload of a number of chairs destined for the red planet.
Ballmers comments on the launch, "Those f****** ***'* ** *******,beat us again!".
And now back to you Tom.
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/dublinclontarf
Fuck teh slashdot
There is something oddly insulting when Google's maps of a different planet are at a better resolution than what's available of my house. People joke that Iowa is in the middle of nowhere, but this is getting ridiculous.
I can now search for craters on Mars. Oh, wait ...
.. paranoid crackpot leftover from the days of Amiga.
Just think all of you who put $300 a share out there for google stock and this is how they plan on paying you back for your generous donation.
Wait, what was that famous moto again...
Ohh --- Ask Why... hmmmmmmmm I think the company who came up with that was into energy or something...
http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=179911 &cid=14898159
Dudes, I was JOKING!
EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
As reported here, you can map your own quest from Hobbiton to Mount Doom! Google Middle Earth. Keep your "Eyes-On-Guard" for this one!
Geek Of The Day, "A geeky place for geeky faces."
I noticed mars appears to be techtonically dead. That's not really news, but I noticed something else. Maybe I just missed this info during school, but:
Notice that the extinct volcanos on Mars appear to be almost exactly on the oppostite end of the planet from major impact events, with the larger crater resulting in larger, more numerous volcanos.
It's almost like the impact event is what caused the pressure that forced magma to the surface on the other side of the planet.
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
..they already conquered Earth.
I was involved with programming the first version of national geographic mapmachine back in 2001. Good to see another rendition.
Uranus? Did you check the back side?
(Spare me the lame Uranus jokes...)
Apparently I couldn't help myself.
Sorry.
I'm done now.
Water has only one triple point. You don't get to pick a triple point for a given temperature. That's why it's a coincidence.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
This sounds very interesting, I'll be looking into how detailed the images are. I wonder if they can spot any bodies of frozen water?
Peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of God.
Has anyone seen this?
a /asom/artifact_html/default.htm
http://www.metaresearch.org/solar%20system/cydoni
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