Mars is closer for computer users than ever before, thanks to the development of two new features on Google Earth 5.0.
Users can now suggest a place on Mars for THEMIS, the Thermal Emission Imaging System, to take pictures of Mars on Google Earth 5.0, as well as another feature that allows users to see the latest infrared images sent from Mars.
The two new features became available to the public just recently, with Philip Christensen, regents professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, as the principal investigator of the THEMIS program and director of the Mars Space Flight Facility.
Christensen was not available for comment, but Christian Yates, a software engineer at ASU, works primarily on the suggested image feature.
“We send [the users] an update and the image when it’s downloaded,” Yates said.
He said the other feature is the most up-to-date imagery available from a spacecraft that he’s aware of.
“[It’s] basically a feed we’re providing to Google of the latest imagery that’s been downloaded from the spacecraft,” Yates said.
He said the two new features are helpful in getting the word out about space exploration.
“It’s primarily a public outreach project — to get the general public interested in space exploration, math, science and engineering,” he said.
Although users aren’t guaranteed to get an image back, each week users are allowed to make 10 suggestions.
Eric Engle, also a software engineer, helped with the suggested image feature.
Engle said one of his tasks was to filter out the photos that didn’t show up the best.
“There were certain times of day that we needed to exclude,” he said.
Engle said it is impossible to take pictures for all the suggestions.
“We can only actually take and then download less than 10 percent of those [suggestions],” he said.
Engle said users can look at the infrared data by going to Google Earth, switching it into Mars mode and looking at the THEMIS data.
Users can use the suggested image feature by going to http://suggest.mars.asu.edu, creating an account and either downloading the Google Earth plugin or downloading Google Earth itself.
“We really hope this will get people interested in THEMIS data,” Engle said.
Reach the reporter at
reweaver@asu.edu
