How NASA Will Bring the Phoenix Mars Mission To the Web

lgmac brings us a story about how NASA will bring information from the Phoenix Mars lander to the internet in the coming days. CIO Magazine speaks with JPL's chief knowledge architect and others about how they'll provide massive amounts of data from the lander to suit the needs of an audience ranging from professors to 8-year-olds. We've been discussing the Phoenix mission for quite a while now. The landing is on schedule for Sunday at roughly 5PM PDT. "'In previous missions, a system like this didn't exist and people were sharing images via external drives,' Bitter says. Some of the images are put up immediately and captioned, or sent to museum audiences, while others are made part of huge mosaic pictures that display the majesty of what the NASA spacecraft encounters, she says. In addition to the sheer volume of data that must be sifted through, challenges included the large, dispersed team, Holm says. 'The content management system has to be easy to use and agnostic,' she says, 'It's all about speed and accuracy of data.' Video on the Web represents one of the biggest changes for modern-day missions for the public, Holm says. 'There's a visceral response we get from people. They feel like they're really there.'"

Comments

I for one will have a tab open permanently

[Finallyjoined!!!]

on the NASA page.

This is fantastic stuff, pity this sort of technology (internet I mean) wasn't available in 1969. I was glued to the TV set then, I will be glued to t'internet now.

i remember the spirit landing

[adpowers]

I remember watching Spirit land on Mars a few years ago. I streamed NASA TV over the internet and remember the anticipation of waiting for data and the excitement when the images finally began appearing on screen. It is a memory that is very fond to me and is still clear in my mind. Being too young to experience the moon landing, the Spirit landing and Columbia disaster are my strongest memories of the space program. Each represents the best and worst of the space exploration.

I hope to be able to stream the Phoenix landing on Sunday.

Re:i remember the spirit landing

[Anonymous Coward]

If the webcast is unavailable due to overwhelming demand (there's a lot of nerds out there...slashdotting sometimes even happens to NASA), you might try the local public access TV channel. The one here in Portland often picks up the NASA TV broadcast for major events like this, and they take it from the satellite broadcast, so NASA TV server bandwidth isn't a problem.

If you're really hardcore, there's instructions on the NASA TV site for how to receive the digital satellite broadcast.

If NASA gets slashdotted...

[3waygeek]

The Science Channel will have live coverage Sunday night between 7 & 9 PM ET.

And it's about time:

[Fluffeh]

It's about time NASA did some of this good old fashioned PR stuff. This sort of thing - just letting people get caught up in the awe of it all - is so much better than any other PR that they could possibly do.

A company that showed me something that they did, that let me get swept away by the sheer audacity of it? That let me be instantly teleported to some other planet in our solar system through amazing photographs? That let me stand on the surface of another planet - even if only in my mind?

Yeah, that's the sort of company that I can
Open my checkbook for.
Petition my local congressman/senator/governing body for.
Happily teach my kids about.
Generally go out of my way for.

I'm feeling it

[SEWilco]

"... They feel like they're really there."

Can't... breathe...

memories are funny things

[WindBourne]

A few years ago, I described a situation to my parents. I vividly remember my mother being upset and my little sister being sick. It turned out that it was not just my sister being sicked, but my father was sitting on a runway in a b-47 waiting orders to head to USSR; It was cuban missle crisis. Another time, my father suddenly being called up, and I remember him strapping his 45 on (I had never seen him wear it before and was curious; all pilots did then to ensure that all members of the craft performed their task correctly if needed). He was apparently put on alert because Kennedy had just been assasinated. Since that time, I recall vividly the images on a BW tv of our first space walk (it was interesting to see him move around). I still recall Apollo 1 and the mode in our house at that time (We had just moved from Texas to Ill just a bit earlier). Likewise, apollo 11 and of course 13, challenger, etc.

It is easy to have these memories. But what you need is to try and instill these in others who are younger than yourself. I have 2 children; 1 is 4 y.o. and the other is 19 m.o. (I enjoyed life too much early so started on a family very late). I have coated my kids room with mag paints and have the planets on the wall. In addition, I like to take my 4 yo out and show her the moon and then talk about where man landed on it. Why? Because it is important for each generation to make sure that the next generation understands why this is important. Even now, I see the despare that is in the 20-35 y.o. WRT human space flights. Yet, if we really want to explore AND to preserve mankind, then we MUST go along. The reason is that at this time, we are the best tool. High maintence, but still the only flexable tool. Sadly, Nixon killed the space program and all the presidents since him have done very little. As much as I dislike W, he has the right idea in going back to the moon. Of course, it is griffin that is doing it mostly correct.