Take a Tour of Mars with NASA & Microsoft
Posted by: Micah Pratt
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to explore Mars? Now, thanks to Microsoft and NASA, it is possible to experience Mars in a new way. I would like to share an article from mashable.com by Stan Schroeder about a new application that allows you to take a virtual tour of Mars.
NASA and Microsoft Let You Explore Mars Like Never Before
Microsoft Research and NASA have teamed up once again and brought the “most complete, highest-resolution coverage of Mars available” to WorldWide Telescope. Microsoft’s app lets you explore space either through a zoom-and-pan interface or guided tours.
This imagery is the handiwork of a group informally called the Mapmakers, led by NASA’s Michael Broxton. Their job is to take satellite images from Mars and elsewhere in our solar system, and turn them into maps.
Yes, it sounds like every geek’s dream job, and having a name that sounds like something from a William Gibson novel doesn’t hurt, either. Director of Microsoft Research’s Earth Dan Fay has worked with Broxton to turn these images and maps into an immersive new experience for the Worldwide Telescope.
“NASA had the images and they were open to new ways to share them. Through the WorldWide Telescope we were able to build a user interface at WWT|Mars that would allow people to take advantage of the great content they had,” Fay says.
As far as what kind of imagery you can expect here, one example is a new dataset from the University of Arizona’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), which is a remote-sensing camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These images are taken in an incredibly high resolution — each image is a gigapixel in size — and the team took all 13,000 HiRISE images and stitched them onto one map. This map, says NASA, is the “highest-resolution map of Mars’s surface ever constructed.”
WorldWide Telescope is available as a desktop application or a web client (which requires Microsoft Silverlight) over at www.worldwidetelescope.org.
This entry was posted on July 13, 2010. It was filed under Blogged, Blogging, Facebook, Google, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Twitter and was tagged with about microsoft, adventure, adventures, aerial maps, blog marketing, bruno mars, business marketing, custom maps, discoveries, download maps, email marketing, expeditions, exploration, explore, from planet, global map, Google, interactive maps, interactive marketing, interface design, internet advertising, internet marketing, internet marketing tools, journey, Kansas City, KC, le mars, little planet, Mapmakers, maps, marketing, marketing advertising, marketing communications, marketing research, marketing services, marketing strategies, marketing strategy, marketing tools, mars, mars 1, mars 2, mars 3, mars mission, mars moons, mars rover, mars surface, mars video, mashable, mashable.com, media marketing, Michael Broxton, microsoft, microsoft access, microsoft application, microsoft business, microsoft database, microsoft install, microsoft installation, microsoft logo, microsoft office, microsoft office access, microsoft online, microsoft server, microsoft update, microsoft updates, microsoft vs, microsoft xp, mission to mars, mobile maps, nasa, nasa photos, nasa space, nasa wind, New York, NY, office microsoft, on planet, online advertising, online marketing, outer space, photo satellite, planet, planet is, planet of, planet the, planets, printable maps, product marketing, public relations, rover mars, satellite image, satellite images, satellite photo, satellite photos, search marketing, SEO, seo marketing, site map, social marketing, social media and marketing, social media marketing company, social media marketing firm, social media marketing services, Social networking, solar energy, solar planet, solar power, solar power system, solar system, solar systems, space, space news, space program, the planet, the planets, the solar system, trends, Twitter, twitter marketing, update microsoft, user experience, user interface, user interface design, venus mars, view satellite, viral marketing, virtual tour, voyage, voyages, web marketing, website advertising, what planet, world nasa, WorldWide Telescope.
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