MarsQuest
Online (www.marsquestonline.org) is a web project designed to extend
the reach and scope of the MarsQuest exhibit. A partnership between
TERC, the Space Science Institute, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, MarsQuest Online provides website visitors with a wide
range of activities that incorporate imagery and data from Mars spacecraft.
The website introduces visitors to the Red Planet and engages them
in the questions that underlie our explorations of Mars. Specific
activities contrast Earth and Mars, familiarize people with Martian
features, probe questions related to searching for life, and examine
what it means to travel to Mars and drive a rover across the surface.
In an innovative first, Marsquest Online is a dissemination point
for all Mars rover images. Marsquest Online has a real-time feed
of raw images from NASA’s rover missions that delivers rover
images to our site immediately after their arrival on Earth. Visitors
can sort the images by Mars day and camera, while a combination of
panoramas and overhead views allow them to view the images in context
and explore Mars along with the rovers. A global 3D system, still
in development, is an expansion of the site’s existing 3D activities.
This system will tap a global set of high-resolution image and topographic
tiles produced by JPL, allowing visitors to fly seamlessly over Mars
in 3D at the full resolution of these datasets. In addition, the
system will include an annotation system that enables people to create
custom Mars tours.
MarsQuest Online was funded by the National Science Foundation.
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