I must prepare a visual presentation about Mars for about 3000 middle school to high school students as part of an educational program called Project Jason, which my company supports. The goal is to get them excited about science. Yesterday, I ordered 3500 red/cyan anaglyph glasses. I wanted to post a new topic, asking members here for help selecting the best MER imagery to use. I plan to use some anaglyphs, to give the kids the feeling of being on Mars, exploring it in person. I also want to use a dust devil movie, a few of the more awesome color panoramas, probably some movies, and maybe even a MidnighMarsBrowser virtual panorama, if time permits. I'll have a PC projector to display large images on a screen, but I am also thinking of having some large panoramas printed for display.
I suspect much of what I want already exists, either on this forum, on the JPL web site, or among some of my own stuff. I'm going on the assumption that the authors of the stuff here will not object to my using anything, but I will ask for permission first.
The greatest problems are that I have to put something together by January 30th, and I may only be allowed 20 minutes. I have a wish list of things I need:
...four to six inspiring color panoramas,
...a couple of animations, particularly some anaglyph animations and/or of the arm at work,
...advice from anyone about a program that can create a movie that will zoom into and pan around a large panorama,
...any suggestions or advice from anyone about anything.
Because I only have such a short time slot, I am less interested in trying to tell the whole story of the Rovers, but more interested in using a few truly amazing, awe-inspiring, or just plain Wow images that might excite the students about space exploration.
Any help would be very much appreciated. I wish they would have given me more than 1.5 weeks to put this together.
At least three images I think would be nice:
Landing image from Spirit, with Columbia Hills in the distance, and then the panorama from the top of the hills.
Endurance panorama.
Maybe a shot of that huge dust devil that Spirit spotted near the top of the hills.
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20051205a.html
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040105a.html
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040112a.html
I couldn't find the link at NASA, but here it is anyway: http://www.cs.bc.edu/~gips/mars.html
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040506a.html
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040610a.html
Go to http://www.syndicate.se/image/space/SUMMIT.htm and once the page has loaded, you can pan around the entire summit, pan up and down to look at the rover itself... hit save page as, then in options, select Web page complete. (Don't know if your browser supports this, but if not, download and install Firefox - for that option alone, it is worth your time.)
Save in a directory with your other images, you should be able to use this to wow the kids - it is like standing on a mountain on another planet, and turning 360 to see the entire landscape. (The bigger the view screen the better...)
Since you don't have much time, a minute or two of projecting this from your laptop would very much have that 'Awesome!' effect you're looking for.
As Jeff's prior suggestion, start with the landing - stress the thing wasn't guaranteed to last over 90 days - but, it made it to the mountains, climbed up on top, and recorded this view for us all - part of over 75,000 pictures Spirit has sent home. And, it's still going strong, over two years later - a fact we can thank the builders of the MER's for.
Perhaps kids can get excited about 'Space exploration' when they realize they don't have to go into space themselves to be major contributors to 'science.' The awesome design and performance of the MER's themselves is almost as astounding as are the pictures of Mars... meaning, it took engineering jobs to make this possible, so it may be helpful to tell kids that they dont have become astronauts to make major contributions to space exploration.
Good luck with your project... I'm sure you'll do just fine.
It seems to me that the scientific Bottom Line (puns intended) of MER is Martian water. If you can make jarosite and hematite chemistry exciting to teenagers, my hat is off to you! Barring that, I might suggest an animation or series of drawings that makes clear the process of aqueous formation of festoon cross-bedding in underlying sediments. You begin with a pond/lake/sea rippling across and shaping the sediments. You end with a cross-section that morphs into one of our MER images of "smiles".
Similarly, the process of 'blueberry' formation and release should be clearly portrayed.
Of course there is an orbiter-image preamble to the water story, from the polar caps, to scoured channels to Valles Marineris, but there is the shadow of the skeptics hanging over it! Still, some rapid switching between Martian and Earth aerial views of matching "water courses" offers a compelling prelude.
Of course there is the essential postscript to the water story: LIFE
Here the story shifts into the forward view of the follow-on missions: Mars Science Laboratory, coring landers, manned missions etc. At this point you can hand the story over to your audience . You will probably not observe the first Martian organism under a microscope. One of them may.
Good Stuff
I think it would be neat to end the presentation with an image that is as recent as you can possibly make it -- pull one off the exploratorium just before doing the presentation, if you can, and verify the time the image was taken (say "This image was taken only a few minutes/hours ago" or somesuch)...
This will add to the 'live' sensation and definately increase interest in following the rovers closely, something we all are addicted to here.
Hi,
How about using some of the trailer for the Disney Movie "Roving Mars" ?
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/rovingmars/noflash.html
You could easily get permission as it is free publicity for them and it should have the desired impact factor .
Cheers
Brian
My 'day job' means that I'm talking with students all the time.
When I'm giving a presentation on the Mars Rovers I always finish with Spirit's image of the Martian sunset.
See 'A Moment Frozen in Time' on the MER website: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050610a.html
Every image from the Rovers is astounding...we're looking at another planet!
I'm sure that users of this forum are like me and need their daily fix from the red planet, and are awestruck by every Haz-, Nav-, and Pan-cam image.
To the general observer though, most Mars images look like lots of places on Earth. What makes Spirit's sunset image unlike anything you see here is that it's all in reverse.
Our sky is blue during the day and we get pink and orange colours at sunset. On Mars (as this photo shows), it's the other way around - a pinky-orange sky during the day and blue at sunset!
Anyone can appreciate the setting sun, we've all seen one and thought how nice it looks. Spirit's image though is of OUR sun setting over the horizon of another world, a sight waiting for the first human explorers to "see" with their own eyes. Remind your students that if the first human missions to Mars take place around 25-30 years from now, then it will be the 5-20 year olds alive today who will be the most likely generation to take that first (next!?) small step. Challenge them to be that person, and to watch the sunset on Mars and to watch for a little bluish star in the sky to come out at night - our home, Earth.
Just my thoughts. Good luck with it.
Astro0
I spent years doing public talks on this, and other spaceflight topics. I always tried to 'personalise' things - the length of day on Mars, the odd way the moons move, the seasons, the odd relationship between the surface area of Mars and the land masses of Earth... ...all the sort of thing that could give the audience a handle on Mars.
Adding a 'fun' element also helps - I used to have a planet-building kit (call me Slartibartfast) which I used to show the differentiation of planetary bodies during the post-accretion phase. Materials: big plastic bottle, polystyrene chips (or ice), a handfull of old nuts and washers, and half a gallon of water. Method: Take two children, and allow to stand. While standing, explain the process of differentiation, and how it produces layers in a planet. Instruct the children to add the nuts and bolts to the bottle, plus the polystyrene (or ice). Shake well, and demonstrate a well-mixed body. Then, add water (using children). The mixture magically separates...
...next, pull from pocket an iron meteorite, a stoney-iron, and a stone. Discuss. Pass the meteorites round the audience - they'll love it, not least because they'll 'understand' why and where they formed (in the broadest terms).
That's just an example - I'm sure there's a way to build a shield volcano in the lecture hall!
So: give 'em something concrete - not just eye candy. Perhaps a 1/18 Mer, and a bit of string passed round the room showing the whole route at 1/18 scale? Or a cut-out set of Columbia Hills to do the talk from within? Or a solar panel with dust on it, and an air-blower? Or...
Bottom line: make it up-close, and personal!
Bob Shaw
I always finish with the most recent imagery I can find - and I always try to highlight the achievment of longevity.
Another usefull tool is to overlay the routemaps on to a local map at the same scale, and include a circle of 600m radius at the landing site to demonstrate how far they were SUPPOSED to go.
Mentioning the problems they've had, and the workarounds or fixes they have formulated is a good educational experience. Perhaps pitch the problem of low solar power near hills to them, and see if they can formulate the concept of driving to positive energy slopes as a solution.
Obviously, show DD movies, Eclipse movies, Driving movies - these all bring the whole thing to life very easliy.
I've tried to work ways to show the full extent and resolution of Pancam imagery within Powerpoint but have, to date, not succeeded. I typically show a tiny version of the mosaic within the screen, and then simply show consecutive stills of various areas of interest one after the other - perhaps this could be augmented by having highlighted points on the first overview pan before showing full screen zoom-ins.
I've looked into doing animations of this - much like the NASA-TV shots one sees, Adobe After effects can;t handle the size of images, but more pro. packages can - I have tried using Discreet (now Autodesk)'s Combustion package, with variable results.
Use 3d images sparingly, they dont work for everyone. DO include the FHAZ from Pan-Pos 2 at Endurance as an anaglyph, and a Navcam anaglyph from just outside Eagle Crater.
Do mention the story of how MGS brought Oppy to Meridiani, the hematite etc. It's a good story.
I've given about 8 MER related talks in the past year, and to be honest - you can't go wrong as the material is, without fail, astonishing
Doug
Oh, mercy, "all of the above".
Remember that young minds have limited attention spans and need some degree of eye-candy to keep their interest going. Keep it lively, keep it at their level, but for the proto-techies in the group, toss in some of the historical geology of the two areas. And include the elements of drama and destruction: the heatshield and Purgatory at Meridiani, for example. For Gusev, do include the quest for El Dorado, that adds a bit of intrigue to the tale. Although the climb into the Columbia Hills gave us some great data and views, the Inner Basin, etc, will be the real story behind this mission.
--Bill
How about some of aldo12xu's driving movies, complete with soundtrack?
Most of the talks I give are in the evening, and if I can, I end up with "and this was taken this morning"
It's a big gasp-oo-wow-laugh-woah noise, it's great. The only other time I've heard it is with the FHAZ Anaglyph from Oppy at Pan Pos 2 at Endurance, and 3D MEX imagery.
I LOVE showing the really dirty Sundial, mentioning the really low power situation, how close to critical etc - and then going "and then one day...." click...clean sundial - and it gets a big laugh
Doug
Does anyone plan to keep/archive these presentations? With permissions, it would be nice to have prepackaged presentations we could use ourselves.
Oh yeah, folks. I don't even know where to begin thanking each and every one of you for your outstanding comments. They all gave me new perspectives to consider. I can't possibly respond to all of the comments, because I would need to reply to every previous posting with affirmative remarks. You people have truly been helpful, and I thank all of you, and also those who have emailed me or contacted me on irc.
This has become a bit more of a challenge. I learned today that my time may not even be as long as 20 minutes. My protests about that seem to be falling on deaf ears. Apparently the students are herded in groups of 20-30 through the various presentations, and I am not allowed to interrupt the flow. Oh well, I'll adapt. Thanks to all of you, I have a much better perspective, even if I don't have enough time to incorporate all of your suggestions.
I'm going to squeeze in as many as I can. There will definitely be a Martian sunset, a dust devil movie and maybe another movie, some anaglyphs, and a most recent image in the mix. I can only hope that I will be invited back for a longer presentation that would do justice to recent missions to Mars.
Thanks, people. I recall the words of the late John Belushi in 'The Blues Brothers' movie..."We're on a mission from God!"
Remind me to tell you how it went.
Off you go and read the Steve Q'n'A We talk about DD's and Cleaning, or infact, DD's and NOT cleaning.
Doug
For a RAT HOLE 3D definately try this one below (small version).
For my presentations, I use this large version:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040818a/sol_178_stereo_rathole_diamond_jenness_A-B202R1_br2.jpg
All the kids and adults love it. A guaranteed crowd pleaser every time I show it. You can see the stereo effect even without the glasses, but projected on a big screen it is quite dramatic. In fact, I've often seen the kids start reaching for the screen and thats when you know you have made an IMPACT !!! ken
ElkGroveDan: Those early MI anaglyphs really were impressive. I had already decided to use the 'Berries on the Ground' one, but you and Ken have convinced me to add the RAT hole as well.
I also realized that it would probably be a good idea to lead off with a detailed picture of a rover, so I can describe it's cameras and tool kit. Does anyone know of a good one?
Nevermind. I think either of these will do nicely.
Color:
http://www.baesystems.com/gallery/electronics_syst_int_c4isr/images/MARS-ROVER_hi.jpg
Anaglyph:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040123a/RoverEgressAnaglyph-A20R1.jpg
Thanks. I am going to use both. I was trying to figure out which anaglyph of Endurance to use. I think that one was probably the best of the lot. I love that Maas animation, especially with the sound cranked up good and loud. I am still trying to convince myself I have enough time to include at least part of it. It really would impress them if they hadn't seen it before.
Thanks everyone, for all of the terrific suggestions. With one week to go, I need to start putting this thing together.
Best of luck with the presentation, Cosmic. And you're certainly welcome to use any of my videos. You could have them constantly playing on a small TV in the corner or something. All the videos I have must add up to at least 20 minutes.
Cheers,
Aldo.
Have you considered prepping a map showing the traverse routes of spirit and oppy over earth bound maps. Having them either starting or finishing at the talk venue would be a neat way to emphasise the roving capabilities.
Example from Doug below
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=3634
Oh, yeah. With the help of everyone here I have thought of many amazing perspectives to use in this presentation. The thing that sucks is that the meatheads are telling me I have only 10 minutes! How the hell can somone present the MER mission results in 10 freakin' minutes? I won't complain about the fact that they only gave me 1.5 weeks to put the whole thing together.
I hope I have a handle on it, but the "stuff" is about to hit the fan.
Thanks again, both of you. I had already decided on a hybrid of those ideas. I'm using that "after seven months" segment of the Maas animation (hopefully with some good speakers including a subwoofer, cranked up), and a collection of some of the best anaglyphs from the missions. I've got 3500 pairs of glasses and dammit, I'm going to give them to the kids and show them Mars in 3D. I have also printed some large 360 panoramas in near real color (approximately 18 inches tall by 9 feet wide), and 3 by 3 foot prints of a rover in color, a rover anaglyph, and the Sunset FX pic with Spirit.
I think I'm going to have a lot of fun doing this. Right now, I am trying to see if I can possibly squeeze in a quick overflight of Mars using the nice Geofusion Mars Demo. http://www.geofusion.com/MarsDemo/
I can just picture picture that "scientific side-show circuit" venue, Shaka. Apparently you managed to rise to the occasion. I'm just hoping they don't stream through mine with "balloons and cotton candy in hand."
I've been reminded that I owe you fine people an update now that the show is on the road, and after so many of you have offered many excellent suggestions. The short story is that it has gone wonderfully. Hearing the oohs and aahhs from the kids and their teachers has been a real treat. How could I fail with such amazing stuff.
I came prepared with enough information to talk all day if necessary, but the schedule was very tight, and I usually didn't finish all that I had planned for the 10 minutes I was supposed to have. Questions from the kids sometimes slowed me down, but it was worth responding to those. There were overly zealous teachers wasting time trying to keep some of the kids quiet, and understandably zealous kids looking all over the room with their new red/cyan glasses, trying to see in 3d! It was a sight to behold. I worked out a routine though that seemed to hold most everyone's attention. I wasn't able to use all of the imagery, movies, etc, that were suggested, but I now have all of that available should I get opportunities to do longer presentations.
I had some of Nico's panoramas, and other images on the walls, adding to the ambience. I was almost always forced to only show a piece of the Maas animation (but I did manage to hook up a decent set of speakers with a subwoofer for that) and then as many anaglyphs as I could. A couple of times I had enough time to show dust devil animations and some eclipse movies.
The bottom line is that this presentation was identified as one of the best to see in the whole program, and for that I am quite pleased. The children and the adults really did seem to enjoy it. I have 3 or 4 more days remaining, but I am hoping to train some others to do it tomorrow, so I can catch up on my backlog at work. People are already approaching me to talk about other venues. Maybe I'll get to do it properly one day.
Congratulations on your success! - It's great that you "spread the gospel".
Were you using an LCD Projector thingie? Did the Anaglyphs look OK - or did they look like the left eye was really dark? I have a major problem with that at the moment, it's really annoying.
Kudos on getting some kids excited about all this - they deserve to know what's going on!
Doug
Sounds like you made great use of your limited time. I was reminded of the occasions when our club did astronomy nights at elementary schools and got clouded out (which is often in Michigan). We would still set up our scopes in the gym, hang posters of the moon, planets, Orion Nebula and Pleiades on the opposite wall, and "observe" them. Even though it wasn't what we really wanted to show, the kids still got excited about telescopes and went away with some new knowledge. It was better than just canceling the event. Any time you can do anything that sparks interest, it's a good thing.
Great job!
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words and support. I can't tell you how much fun this has been, and I look forward to doing more some day.
Doug: Apparently it was not an LCD projector. It was the DLP type. I didn't notice any darkness problems whatsoever. The brand I had was InFocus model X1, and the anaglyphs looked great.
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