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NASA Will Crowdsource Its Photos of Mars

Posted by timothy on from the find-waldo-win-a-shuttle-main-engine dept.

tedlistens writes "NASA is asking the public to suggest subjects for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, its super powerful camera currently orbiting Mars. Since it arrived there in 2006, the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has seen more success than that lost lander, recording nearly 13,000 observations of Martian terrain, with each image covering dozens of square miles and revealing details as small as a desk. By letting the public in on the Martian photo shoot, scientists aren't just getting more people excited about space exploration. They're hoping that crowdsourcing imaging targets will increase the camera's already bountiful science return. Despite the thousands of pictures already taken, less than 1 percent of the Martian surface has been imaged."

6 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. ESA Mars Webcam by sznupi · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There's a similar thing going on for some time on ESA Mars Express mission, where public is invited to participate in obtaining, processing, etc. of images taken with a camera that was meant originally to observe Beagle separation.

    http://www.esa.int/esaMI/VMC/index.html

    --
    One that hath name thou can not otter
  2. Find The Beagle2! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Kudos to the first person to find the Beagle2 (or the crater it made)

    Sort of like finding Waldo on a much bigger scale.

  3. Re:First Priority by TubeSteak · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Is it really all that useful having 100,000 people with zero technical experience or knowledge looking at these pictures?
    We might be able to identify gross features, but the nuances will be glossed over entirely.

    But if it doesn't require any technical knowledge, NASA should start pumping out lesson plans and get school kids do the bulk of the dirty work.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  4. Just do the rest by Amorymeltzer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Are they trying to suggest that only about 1% of Mars is obviously interesting to Martian scientists? There's really nothing else they know they want to look at? Okay sure, the PR could be a good thing and they might get some cool suggestions, but honestly:

    - Pictures of the rovers
    - Pictures of the canals
    - Pictures of the mountains
    - Pictures of the ice caps

    Outside of that, everything is just "more red sand." Nobody really cares which small portion of the planet it is as long as they get cool desktop photos in a handy resolution (1680x1050, please). Do your own damn work and figure out what deserves to be photographed.

    --
    I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
  5. Great idea - Horrible term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    What Einstein came up with "crowdsourcing"? I put that up there with "core competencies", "stakeholders", and "rightsizing" as jargonny business babble. If I were an evil overlord, I would instantly put to death any underlings who dared utter those terms in my presence.

    Yes, I think I need a hug.

  6. Glass worms of Mars by Nonillion · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How about some hi res images of the glass worms of Mars http://www.enterprisemission.com/can.htm

    --
    "I bow to no man" - Riddick