NASA and Microsoft Provide Mars 3-D Close Encounter

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RELEASE: 2010-229 July 12, 2010

NASA and Microsoft Provide Mars 3-D Close Encounter

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-229&cid=release_2010-229

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA and Microsoft Research are bringing Mars to life with new
features in the WorldWide Telescope software that provide viewers with a high-resolution 3-D
map of the Red Planet.

Microsoft's online virtual telescope explores the universe using images NASA spacecraft return
from other worlds. Teams at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and
Microsoft in Redmond, Wash., jointly developed the software necessary to make NASA's
planetary data available in WorldWide Telescope.

"By providing the Mars dataset to the public on the WorldWide Telescope platform, we are
enabling a whole new audience to experience the thrill of space," said Chris C. Kemp, chief
technology officer for information technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The fully-interactive images and new NASA data will allow viewers to virtually explore Mars
and make their own scientific discoveries. New features include the highest-resolution fully
interactive map of Mars ever created, realistic 3-D renderings of the surface of the planet, and
video tours with two NASA scientists, James Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md., and Carol Stoker of Ames.

Garvin's tour walks viewers through the geological history of Mars and discusses three possible
landing sites for human missions there. Each landing site highlights a different geological era of
the planet.
Stoker's tour addresses the question: "Is there life on Mars?" and describes the findings of
NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander.

"Our hope is that this inspires the next generation of explorers to continue the scientific discovery
process," said Ames Center Director S. Pete Worden.

The Intelligent Robotics Group at Ames Research Center developed open source software that
runs on the NASA Nebula cloud computing platform to create and host the high-resolution maps.
The maps contain 74,000 images from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbiter Camera and more
than 13,000 high-resolution images of Mars taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. Each individual HiRISE image
contains more than a billion pixels. The complete maps were rendered into image mosaics
containing more than half a billion smaller images.

"These incredibly detailed maps will enable the public to better experience and explore Mars,"
said Michael Broxton, a research scientist in the Intelligent Robotics Group at Ames. "The
collaborative relationship between NASA and Microsoft Research was instrumental for creating
the software that brings these new Mars images into people's hands, classrooms and living
rooms."

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached the planet in 2006 to begin a two-year primary
science mission. The mission has returned more data about Mars than all other spacecraft sent to
the Red Planet. Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting Mars in 1997. The spacecraft operated
longer than any other Mars spacecraft, ceasing operations in November 2006.

"Microsoft has a long-standing relationship with NASA that has enabled us to jointly provide the
public with the ability to discover space in a new way," said Tony Hey, corporate vice president
of the External Research Division of Microsoft Research.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona,
Tucson, and was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Malin Space
Science Systems in San Diego provided and operated the Mars Orbiter Camera.

To learn more and download the WorldWide Telescope, visit
http://www.worldwidetelescope.org .

For more information and images of Mars taken by HiRISE, visit
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu .

For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

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