Research Stories

by Robert Burnham

Hey Mars, say cheese! Scientists are taking your picture. They are taking LOTS of pictures. In fact, they are taking so many pictures, that no one should have to worry about getting lost on the Red Planet ever again.

Scientists at Arizona State University have created two new features for Google Earth 5.0, the popular online application that lets users tour Earth, the starry sky, and Mars.

The new features were developed by ASU staff members in cooperation with programmers at Google. “They will help everyone have a lot more fun exploring the Red Planet," says Philip Christensen. "It's public engagement at its best."

Christensen is a Regents' Professor of Geological Sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at ASU and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility on the Tempe campus. He also is the principal investigator for THEMIS, the Thermal Emission Imaging System that uses both a multiband infrared and visual camera.

The ASU scientist says that the first of the new features will allow anyone, anywhere, recommend places on Mars to photograph with ASU's THEMIS camera. The device is mounted on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. The second new feature shows the most recent infrared images of Mars sent back to Earth from the THEMIS camera.

"We wanted to give the general public a way to suggest places on Mars for THEMIS to photograph," says Christensen. "Anyone can recommend a site using the new feature. The recommendations then go to mission scientists who will decide what areas THEMIS images. If a public suggestion matches what the researchers choose, we'll notify the person who suggested the site and let them see the image as soon as we do."

To suggest a place for THEMIS to photograph, viewers need two things: Google Earth 5.0 and a file that is updated each week giving the spacecraft's Mars orbital groundtrack. Google Earth 5.0 is available at http://earth.google.com.

To get the orbital track, users should go to http://suggest.mars.asu.edu and follow the simple steps to register.

Registering takes users to a page to download the orbital track file. It also lets them make image suggestions without having to enter an E-mail address with each image suggestion.

Registering also creates a customized page where users can see their past image suggestions and find links to their successful ones.

With the orbital track file downloaded, viewers start Google Earth and switch the globe to Mars (via the Planets toolbar button, which resembles the planet Saturn). Then viewers open the orbital track file from within Google Earth. Viewers can also just double-click on the orbital file once Google Earth has been set to Mars as its planet.

The places where THEMIS can take images during the coming week appear as stripes wrapped onto the Martian globe. Viewers click on stripe segments to recommend places for THEMIS to photograph.

"Each viewer can make up to 10 imaging suggestions per week," says Christian Yates, software engineer at the Mars Space Flight Facility.

Yates designed the online interface for the project. If a site picked by a member of the public matches one chosen by the mission scientists, that person will be sent a link providing access to the image after it has come from the spacecraft.

Says Yates, "Making 10 image selections a week, a typical viewer will probably get at least one image."

THEMIS takes images at both visual and infrared wavelengths; viewers using Suggest an Image are making recommendations for visual images.

"Taking pictures with an orbiting satellite can be a complicated business, but this tool makes it much easier," says Eric Engle, scientific software engineer at the Mars Space Flight Facility and lead project developer for the ASU team. "We hope people enjoy this chance to participate with us in exploring Mars."

Live From Mars
The ASU team and Google's programmers also developed a second new Google Earth feature called “Live From Mars.” The feature shows the latest infrared images from THEMIS as soon as the mission team at ASU receives them. look for the new feature among the Mars Gallery layers in Google Earth 5.0.

When the layer is clicked on, viewers see the Martian globe with the most recent THEMIS infrared images displayed on the surface. Each image is flagged with a square symbol. Viewers can zoom in on each image to see details more clearly.

Moving your computer mouse over the square symbol brings up the image's identification number. Clicking on the symbol opens a bubble window with more information (such as latitude and longitude, and date and time the photo was taken). The bubble also has links to the THEMIS camera site at ASU and NASA's Mars Odyssey site.

Christensen notes that both new features let the general public look over the shoulder of Mars researchers. “Suggest an Image” in particular offers a potentially unique reward.

"The coverage of Mars by THEMIS at visual wavelengths is by no means complete, Christensen says. “As a result, some people who recommend an image target could be the first humans ever to see that particular place in such detail."