Google Goes to Mars

Kynn writes "Google has launched Google Mars, based on the work done by Arizona State University's THEMIS researchers. With an AJAX-driven interface based on Google Maps (and Google Moon), you can search the Red Planet in false-color elevation, black-and-white visual, or infrared. Be sure to check out the so-called Face, the landing sites for Spirit and Opportunity, and the Polar Lander."

"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[eldavojohn]

Since Kynn told me to check out the "so-called face" on Mars, I was much obliged.

Unfortunately, after sorting through the list of stories and finding #116 (The Face on Mars [msss.com]) and #118 (The So-Called Face on Mars [asu.edu]), I could only make out the mound when looking in infrared. Also confusing is that two different locations are given (40.68N, 9.54W & 40.75N, 9.46W with the latter looking to be the correct location).

The level of detail you can see is not very high so you really shouldn't check out the face; just visit one of the above websites.

Instead of that boring face, check out The Happy Face Crater [msss.com] (#117 in the list of stories). Now that is one content crater. Put that image in tie-dye relief colors, screen it on a t-shirt and you've got one product that will sell to millions of hippies world-wide.

Let me see, if I know my European history, here's the business model :

1. Send explorer, make him bring back maps with everything named in my language. Check.
2. Identify resources.
3. Send less friendly "traders" to said foreign land & requisition land from natives by asking chiefs to sign "treaties" in a language they don't understand (legalese).
4. Make sure the rest of the world doesn't know what you're doing. Masks of philanthropy or the spread of some major religion work the best.
5. Do not forget that manpower is a resource and is yours for the taking. The best kind of manpower is free manpower.
6. Sap land of all resources (Profit!).
7. Discard ... er, "liberate" colony and allow it to fester in the chaos that you created.

When I looked at the map, I didn't see any dividing lines or (most importantly) flags. Does anyone want to visit Mars to open trade and represent king eldavojohn?

I'm reminded of a Cecil Rhodes Quote:

"I would annex the planets if I could."

Re:"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[meringuoid]

Instead of that boring face, check out The Happy Face Crater

Holy crap. Somebody call Dr Manhattan [waterholes.com]! It's a thermodynamic miracle...

Re:"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[frankie]

FWIW, yes, Alan Moore knew about the happy face when he wrote Watchmen; Argyre Planitia is in the dialogue. Dave Gibbons drew it way too small though; the real thing is over 200km across.

Re:"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[tpgp]

Put that image in tie-dye relief colors, screen it on a t-shirt and you've got one product that will sell to millions of hippies world-wide.

Go to google mars, search for galle, look for it in 'elevations' mode & you get exactly that :-)

Historical Revisionism, ho hum

[Dahlgil]

I love these revisionist views. But what do they really say? 1. So if a German, Iranian, or African discovers a new feature on Mars, what is the preferred language they should name the feature? Native Martian or English? Certainly, they shouldn't name it in their own language. Maybe we could make up a "real" Martian language. But who would make it up? Maybe we could just point. 2. Explorers should always ignore resources. Resources are evil. Come to think of it, exploration is evil. All of the

Re:"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[samkass]

My question is, if Google starts co-locating their servers on Mars, will the www.google.mars servers allow the Martian authorities to censor features such as the Martian face!?

Re:"Happy Face" way better than "The Face"

[The Cydonian]

Latency issues with google.mars would be a bummer, with Mars being quite a few light-minutes (5? I can't remember) or so away.

I'd be more concerned about Martian censors here on earth. :-)

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

profit!

[nan0]

this is tremedously useful.

this really ought to relieve wall street's anxiety.

seriously.

real estate on mars, huge in 120 years. google's wayyyy ahead of the game.

Re:profit!

[ROOK*CA]

Yes on the surface on might conclude that this is a solution looking for a problem until you stop and consider that research organizations and governments have already spent a significant amount of money on planetary mapping missions (Venus, Mars, Titan for example), Google has provisioned the technology to put the results back in the public domain (in an easy to use format), which I would also imagine will drive at least some additional traffic to their site. It seems that they are only adapting the existing google maps technology to new data and not writing the code base from scratch (so it was probably not all that costly).

One might also conclude as this technology continues to evolve that it will ultimately be saleable (universities for example?) in it's own right, in which case this is all R&D and testing which could thru advertising pay for itself.

On another note, I'm looking forward to seeing "Google Venus" using the radar mapping data of the Venusian Surface, should be interesting.

Re:profit!

[DerekLyons]

Google has provisioned the technology to put the results back in the public domain (in an easy to use format)

Google put nothing into the public domain - as the maps were already *in* the public domain.

Profit?

[EraserMouseMan]

I'm just wondering whether anybody on /. thinks that Google profits monetarily from doing things like gMoon and gMars. It fosters good will in the scientific/education community. But what other ways could Google benefit from projects like these?

Re:Profit?

[ceejayoz]

I'd imagine it's this sort of thing that help foster the "it's cool to work at Google" culture that helps gets them so many highly qualified applicants.

Google map of the Universe

[wysiwia]

Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".

O. Wyss

Google's Guide to the Galaxy

[zoeblade]

Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".

Is the answer to life, the universe and everything [google.co.uk] close enough?

Re:Google's Guide to the Galaxy

[generic-man]

American units, please [google.co.uk]

Re:Google map of the Universe

[Zedrick]

Be prepared to wait for an update far ahead into the future, the Restaurant at the end of the Universe won't be constructed for another x billion years.

Re:Google map of the Universe

[wysiwia]

Be prepared to wait for an update ...

Fine, can I sign up for an update notification somewhere?

O. Wyss

Re:Google map of the Universe

[Lockejaw]

Well, I don't know of any notification service, but I'll tell you this:

Set up a special bank account for your meal there. Prices are pretty steep at Milliways, but if you invest a little bit now, with all the interest building up over billions of years, you should be just fine.

Re:Google map of the Universe

[hackstraw]

Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".

Take a left where the post office used to be.

Re:Google map of the Universe

[Blazeix]

A great 3D map of the universe is Celestia [shatters.net]. Its set up similar to Google Earth in that you can fly around and search for different celestial objects. Its pretty cool.

Re:Google map of the Universe

[abenassi]

Where is the Google map of the Universe? I'd like to go to the "Restaurant at the end of the Universe".

Apparently, it was converted to a Starbucks [google.com].

Re:Google map of the Universe

[genner]

You can't get in without a resevation and the only way to get a reservation is creating an alternate universe where you already have a reservation.

Re:Google map of the Universe

[genner]

Rookie mistake. You have to import the universe library before you
you create an instance of the class.

Similar functions for Google Earth?

[Peregr1n]

I really like the Elevation/Visible/Infrared options - I wonder if they have similar data for Earth? It would be fascinating to study a city in infrared.
Of course, they have elevation data for the executable Google Earth but it would also be interesting to see a colour map.

Re:Similar functions for Google Earth?

[schweini]

it's actually really easy to do with google earth's 'overlays' - just find some IR map of the place you're interested in online, create a new 'overlay' in google earth, adjust the size a bit, and voila. looks very neat in 3D (when youtilt a landscape with an overlay).

Next stop Jupiter

[Roy van Rijn]

Looks really good this new Google Mars thing, hopefully the new project Google does will be Jupiter, then we can really explore the storms and the new Red Jr.

Re:Next stop Jupiter

[sznupi]

Please tell me you're not serious...it would be like making Google Maps out of clouds on Earth...

REWARD!

[meringuoid]

A +5 Informative moderation to the first Slashdotter poring over these Mars maps to find out where the hell Beagle II got to!

Re:REWARD!

[LordSnooty]

10.6N, 90W, apparently... try clicking "spacecraft" and find Beagle II in the list. +5 moderation on this post by the end of today, thankyou...

Re:REWARD!

[jacksonj04]

I notice it says "Beagle 2 Rover" - it doesn't rove.

It's all a conspiracy

[telchine]

Notice that if you zoom in Google Moon [google.com], you see that the moon is made of cheese [allforces.com]. It's a joke you see, the moon isn't really made of cheese. However, if you zoom in on Google Mars, you don't see little green men. Don't you think that's suspicious? Surely if it were untrue, Google would have included it. Therefore we have conclusive evidence that Mars is full of little green men!!! The martian govenment are clearly colluding with Google to censor the Google Mars results!

Re:It's all a conspiracy

[dpilot]

At the zoom settings Google has, you can't even see Prospero's heads, let alone the zeks.

(Just finished Dan Simmon's "Illium" and "Olympos".)

Somewhere on Mars...

[digitaldc]

...there are robots running wild, overstaying their welcome.

But seriously, they should send the next lander to the highest elevation on Olympus Mons [esa.int] and then take some panoramic shots and see what is in the Caldera. You could get a shot from 22km elevation from Mars' surface, I think this would be very interesting.

Dust ...

[ccozan]

would limit the visibility, though...

IANAMS, I'm not sure which season would bring more clear atmosphere. Maybe some one would bring some knowledge into the thread?

Re:Somewhere on Mars...

[Ford Prefect]

Landing something at such an altitude could prove problematic - in that it's above a large proportion of the (already very thin) Martian atmosphere. Which means you can't use aerodynamic braking, parachutes and so on to slow down much, instead you'd need some particularly chunky retro-rockets to dispose of the somewhat considerable velocity the probe received when being boosted from Earth orbit.

A second, slightly deeper alternative could be Valles Marineris - although I read somewhere that it's so huge, if you stood in the middle you wouldn't be able to see the multi-kilometre-high cliffs at the sides, thanks to the curvature of Mars. A lot of the 3D renders and fly-throughs around seem to have pretty extreme vertical exaggeration.

Martian geology tends to work on a stupendously huge scale, and some of the largest features probably won't look all that great from the ground. Maybe we need to look for the smaller features, which are still far larger than anything similar on Earth - like those giant cliffs I mentioned earlier...

Just wondering...

[famebait]

Zooming all the way out, it seems the entrie southern hmisphere has a greater elevation than the northern one. Doesn't that just mean they've got the center wrong? Not tryng to be a wise-ass, just curious what the explenation is.

Re:Just wondering...

[Hakubi_Washu]

That's correct, the whole "northern" (There is no magnetic field to speak of, so "north" is a convention only) hemisphere is a basin, probably originally an ocean.

Re:Just wondering...

[rk]

North and south have nothing to do with magnetic fields, but rather with the spin of the planet.

Re:Just wondering...

[jawtheshark]

So, the North of Uranus is somewhere on it's side? Left or right? Just wondering. (Spare me the lame Uranus jokes...)

Re:Just wondering...

[Carnildo]

Face the sunrise. North is on your left.

Re:Just wondering...

[Lockejaw]

IIRC, Uranus's axis of rotation points towards the sun.

Uranus polar location [was Re:Just wondering...]

[Maow]

So, the North of Uranus is somewhere on it's side? Left or right? Just wondering.

Uranus? Did you check the back side?

(Spare me the lame Uranus jokes...)

Apparently I couldn't help myself.

Sorry.

I'm done now.

Re:Just wondering...

[bdeclerc]

Nope, this is correct - the entire Southern hemisphere of Mars is a lot higher than the Northern hemisphere (several miles higher in average height)

Re:Just wondering...

[Bob3141592]

There's the geometric center, and then there's the center of mass/center of rotation. If the first case defines the center, you would be correct, and you could simply adjust the center to equalize the elevation in the two hemispheres. In the latter case, that's not an option.

Re:Just wondering...

[Eccles]

It's rather like peeling the skin off of only the top half of an orange (although in this case, the skin is less than paper thin.) Even if you adjusted your perceived center down by the thickness of the removed layer, it's still going to be higher elevations relative to the center on the bottom half.

Re:Just wondering...

[famebait]

Surely not at the poles?

Re:Just wondering...

[Ric O'Shea]

What I found more interesting about zoominag all the way out was that it reveals that the surface is actually titled horizontally. Now there is some intelegent design at work ;)

Re:Just wondering...

[meringuoid]

Zooming all the way out, it seems the entrie southern hmisphere has a greater elevation than the northern one. Doesn't that just mean they've got the center wrong?

That can happen. Look at Earth for comparison: the great majority of the land is in the northern hemisphere. Drain away the oceans and you have something looking quite similar to what we see on Mars.

Hooray!

[babbling]

Time to play spot the martian!

You know, as much as humans have screwed up the Earth, we've also made it interesting. I find the architecture and placement of buildings/roads/other man-made monuments to be the most interesting things on Google Maps. Google Moon is rather boring in comparison.

What I want to know

[LordSnooty]

The "elevation" view shows a range of elevations; 21km to -9km or roundabouts. What I want to know, is how do you define "sea level" on Mars? What is the elevation above or below measured against?

Re:What I want to know

[Bamfarooni]

From wikipedia:

Zero elevation: Since Mars has no oceans and hence no 'sea level', a zero-elevation surface or mean gravity surface must be selected. The datum for Mars is defined by the fourth-degree and fourth-order spherical harmonic gravity field, with the zero altitude defined by the 610.5 Pa (6.105 mbar) atmospheric pressure surface (approximately 0.6% of Earth's) at a temperature of 273.16 K. This pressure and temperature correspond to the triple point of water.

Coincidence

[p3d0]

Interesting. Seems like an amazing coincidence that the triple-point of water serves as a useful "sea level" on Mars.

Re:Coincidence

[kidgenius]

Actually, it probably was chosen on purpose to be that way.

Re:Coincidence

[p3d0]

Huh? My point is that out of all the solid bodies known, I wouldn't be surprised if Mars were the only one for which the triple-point of water would be anywhere near a suitable "sea level".

Re:Coincidence

[kidgenius]

The sea level was specifically chosen at Mars to coincide with the triple point. That's how I mean it was probably *intended* that way. They figured out at what elevation the triple point would exist at a certain temperature and they called that "sea level" of Mars. It would stand to reason that any other solid body without a "sea" would have "sea level" defined in a similar manner.

Triple point doesn't work that way

[p3d0]

Water has only one triple point [wikipedia.org]. You don't get to pick a triple point for a given temperature. That's why it's a coincidence.

Um... awesome I guess!

[illtron]

At last I can unlock the mysteries of the blue, green and orange planet, Mars!

Actually this is kind of cool, but strange that it defaults to the colored elevation map.

Or Mars in /3D/ With World Wind

[AnswerIs42]

Already been out for testing .. but here is a blog post on World Wind Mars data [nyud.net].

Another post [nyud.net] on a comparison of how large Olympus Mons is.

World Wind has many Mars add-ons already... And I have heard that Venus may also show up in 3D with World Wind 1.3.4's release. You can install it as an add-on now sans 3D data.

Re:Or Mars in /3D/ With World Wind

[IPFreely]

I can't seem to get to your links. Did they get drowned out?

I've seen another. This one has a 3D fly over with relief, pilotable. It's nice and simple, but effective. (Warning, Flash/Shockwave ahead)
Mars Quest [marsquestonline.org]

It has quite a bit of background on mars and the various missions. It's worth a look if you can get in.

Or for a smaller-footprint 3D option

[mmacdona86]

Try my Java web-start version with the global MOLA data [antlersoft.com].

Re:Or Mars in /3D/ With World Wind

[niXcamiC]

Wonder when they'll have decent coverage of earth....

Finally.

[hal2814]

Somebody is taking his [ytmnd.com] advice.

Ancestor to the Lens?

[Carrierwave]

That's two planets down. How many generations of this software before we get the Galactic Lens of Foundation fame?

Look!

[Bromskloss]

I can see my house from here!

Found it

[terbo]

Neat. Finally found my house.

How about a 3D version like google earth 3D?

[(C3PO-Neural_Login)]

I read numerous books as a kid which assured me that by now people should be living on mars, I should be able to holiday on the moon, and that trains would be attached to sky high buildings.. I am feeling rather let down.. At least if a 3D version of google mars and moon was created I could pretend... Why can't i turn around in google earth and navigate towards other planets? Damn it. I'm getting old I can't wait much longer! Modern technology is rather disappointing. I consider mankind primitive until we

Open-source real-time 3d version of mars data

[mmacdona86]

Realtime 3d renders of global Mars MOLA data are here [antlersoft.com]. It's a Java Web Start app with OpenGL, and will run from most browsers in Windows and Linux (including Linux on AMD 64).

I want to see google...

[Anonymous Coward]

. That would be cool! Glide over cm and cm of your favourite babe.

Grits extra.

Marvin? Dejah?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where's Marvin and his Illudium Pu-36 explosive space modulator? And how about Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium?

What kind of bogus Mars search engine is this if it can't find Marvin and Dejah? I bet MSN Mars Search (being rushed out any day now) has them.

Re:Marvin? Dejah?

[TheWanderingHermit]

That's what I was wondering. I can understand them not showing the atmosphere making plants for security, but I'd think they'd at least show Helium, or the Valley of Dor.

I'm disappointed

[Nuffsaid]

I zoomed all the way in, expecting to see a uniform plain of chocolate snacks. Judging by the colors, the truth is much less palatable.

Resolution?

[superswede]

What's the resolution? There is no ruler/scale displayed. And come on, the amount of details is far better than Google Map's resolution on Sweden (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=sweden&ll= 55.728657,13.257751&spn=1.006855,2.510376 [google.com]). Seriously!

Interestingly

[borganha]

it is the first non-beta Google new product in years.

Real-time 3D version of the Mars MOLA data...

[mmacdona86]

Has been up for a couple of years here. [antlersoft.com]

Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars

[Gulthek]

So when is a more enterprising user than I going to map out the significant locations in Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy? Even with the maps included with the book, I had a hard time keeping the character's locations straight.

Hey!

[Sloosh13]

Why the hell don't the driving directions work?!?!

Re:Hey!

[chrisd]

The really funny thing about your comment is that in early versions, the js code we cribbed was from Google maps and you could overlay earth highways and directions on the mars map. It was pretty entertaining, if wildly inaccurate.

Re:Hey!

[Sloosh13]

Very entertaining indeed and actually might be somewhat useful for getting some relatable sense of distance.

Your comment also brought to mind that it would be quite neat to see the paths of the rovers if such data is procurable.

Re:Hey!

[The Cydonian]

in early versions, the js code we cribbed was from Google maps

So you guys also copy-paste code between deployments? Shweeet! Screw abstraction and all that theory nonsense; ctrl+ c, ctrl + v is the way to go!

spirit/opportunity landing sites

[escay]

hmm...i thought spirit and opportunity landed on (diametrically) opposite faces of mars...looks like longitudinally they just landed 10 degrees apart (something like new york-boston on mars scale)...

Podcast Interview with Noel Gorelick

[Kynn]

R. Francis Smith of Sturgeon's Law [sturgeonslaw.com] has a podcast interview with Noel Gorelick of Arizona State University [asu.edu] -- the guy behind Google Mars [google.com] -- who discusses the technical and scientific background behind the project. Listen to it here. [sturgeonslaw.com]

This is gonna get better real soon.

[BorkBorkBork6000]

I really hope the data from the latest Mars probe [theglobeandmail.com] gets included in this when it starts sending back pictures.

Equipped with the most powerful telescopic camera yet sent to a foreign world, the craft, known as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, is expected to photograph the Red Planet in unprecedented detail.

Its onboard optics can spot an object "as small as a kitchen table" on the surface as it cruises 300 kilometres overhead, said Robert Lock, the lead mission planner.

Let me be the first to say "coo

Re:This is gonna get better real soon.

[Winlin]

If their butt is the size of a kitchen table, then they aren't LITTLE green men.

Re:This is gonna get better real soon.

[SirBruce]

How many kitchen tables are in a football field? Damn metric system; can't they just use normal units?!?

Bruce

Wildcard searches work

[notyou2]

Try "russia*" to catch both "russia" and "russian", for example.

It's Percival Lowell's Birthday

[jamie]

Today is, not coincidentally, Percival Lowell's 151st birthday.

Homesick

[mod-e-rate]

Now if Google will add voice calls to mars in thier Gtalk application and support Google account sign up for folks from mars, i can finally contact my folks back home!

-
IMHO, every sig should be encrypted and $x\|å:ÛNË{ÛN,ùàr}Y

Google is headed downhill

[saltydogdesign]

Where's "find businesses" and "get directions?" This map is useless to me!

Re:Google is headed downhill

[rk]

I'd be more than willing to sell you some real-estate there...

Microsoft's response

[dublinclontarf]

Microsoft, in response to the recent launch of the Mars version of Google Map's has anounced it's plan's, under direct orders from Ballmer to launch a small rocket with a payload of a number of chairs destined for the red planet.

Ballmers comments on the launch, "Those f****** ***'* ** *******,beat us again!".
And now back to you Tom.

Now wait a minute

[CobaltTiger]

There is something oddly insulting when Google's maps of a different planet are at a better resolution than what's available of my house. People joke that Iowa is in the middle of nowhere, but this is getting ridiculous.

Great! Now I can ...

[whitehatlurker]

I can now search for craters on Mars [slashdot.org]. Oh, wait ...

What!?!?!?

[Kittie Rose]

http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=179911 &cid=14898159 [slashdot.org]

Dudes, I was JOKING!

Google Goes To Middle Earth

[topgeek]

As reported here [thetoque.net], you can map your own quest from Hobbiton to Mount Doom! Google Middle Earth. Keep your "Eyes-On-Guard" for this one!

Umm...I Think I Noticed Something...

[CrazyDuke]

I noticed mars appears to be techtonically dead. That's not really news, but I noticed something else. Maybe I just missed this info during school, but:

Notice that the extinct volcanos on Mars appear to be almost exactly on the oppostite end of the planet from major impact events, with the larger crater resulting in larger, more numerous volcanos.

It's almost like the impact event is what caused the pressure that forced magma to the surface on the other side of the planet.

A nice new spin...

[wessto]

I was involved with programming the first version of national geographic mapmachine [nationalgeographic.com] back in 2001. Good to see another rendition.

Sounds Interesting

[bdulac]

This sounds very interesting, I'll be looking into how detailed the images are. I wonder if they can spot any bodies of frozen water?