If I'm interpreting that correctly, the filled channel they're considering as a primary traverse route should be just to the right of that downslope on the right side of the image. The "fence" that's beyond the dune field might be just off to the right in the distance. Anyway, those features at the bottom of the slope are going to get a *whole* lot bigger. I've dropped a 50m tall marker in the channel in the image below. The fence itself is a good 50m or so tall.

Indeed, congrats to the MSL team. Was up till 3am watching and thinking, "I'm going to up my game... but maybe tomorrow after I get some sleep." Great work with Eyes, Doug. Having it open next to NASA TV on my display really ratcheted up the tension.

Can't wait to watch Aeolis Mons revealing itself over the next months and years.

I've removed the above GaleCrater flyaround; instead, you can explore the same terrain with the Last Martian Harvest game I made (it's free!): http://www.mannedmissions.com/LastMartianHarvest

I mention it because I've seen some folks trying to access the /GaleCrater page and getting 404 messages. PRODUCT PLUG WARNING: And don't forget you can see the full res version of that Gale Crater dataset with the software at http://www.mannedmissions.com/download.

And it would be all the more poignant if -- perish the thought -- MSL fails to achieve its target. The Great Galactic Ghoul is out there.

Oh, by no means did I take it as such. And even when my work *is* criticized, I welcome it. It is much preferable to hearing crickets. I sometimes even end up agreeing with the critic!

I think game balance is the area where feedback from users is most important. The things that I think are too easy/too hard are rarely what others think they are, so your comments are hugely appreciated.

In my rush to get this out for Halloween, play testing was extremely limited -- by which I mean it was just me, late at night going on minimal sleep from the night before. If you've not got the pumpkin into the rocket, I highly recommend it; best part of this little game, IMHO. And apologies for the frustrations. But, if I'm honest, I don't want to make things too easy. I mean, the real rover drivers have to deal with a 20 minute delay in any commands they send. But, then again, they don't have to push 2m diameter pumpkins around, either.

FYI, I've simplified the controls a bit. No longer do you have to explicitly control the camera. Would love to hear from folks who've achieved liftoff.

No Flash, just Unity. I'd love to support Linux, and plan to in the future, but I am limited by the plugin. It's a tradeoff I have to make at this point as a one man operation. Sorry for the frustration! Perhaps if I start asking money for access to the game I'll put up some notice about no Linux support.

Haha! Thanks. Some might consider it a bug, but I think the ability to spawn a rover underneath the ground and watch it fly on a ridiculous trajectory is more feature, less bug. FYI, the rover will spawn 10m in front of wherever you happen to be looking at the time, so you can make them appear in the air, too.

Hey folks,

I made a little game using some of the HiRISE terrain and imagery data from Gale Crater. It's called 'The Last Martian Harvest': http://www.mannedmissions.com/LastMartianHarvest

Happy Halloween!

Adam

Most likely. The suspension is not exactly rocker-bogie here. Once I saw the rover doing wheelies there was no turning back. Part of the battle is simply keeping the rover from tipping past 90 degrees. I'm guessing the consequences in real life would be just as heartbreaking as a full on explosion.

Howdy folks. I captured some video from a web browser-based game I'm working on in which you get to control Mars rovers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jcL4mX8G9o

That terrain, by the way, is the Gale Crater mound where MSL will be exploring.

Cheers,
Adam

Just wanted to add my kudos. Absolutely stunning work, Nirgal.

Here's a Gale Crater flyaround tool I'd appreciate some feedback on (note: this will start streaming data into your web browser -- about 100MB total if you view the whole thing): http://www.mannedmissions.com/GaleCrater/GaleCrater.html

Known issues:
* Loading icon strangeness under Windows.
* Sluggishness in Chrome under OS X. If you right-click and select 'Go Fullscreen', performance should return to normal.

Because of bandwidth costs, this isn't something I'll be able to keep up forever without charging, but I thought I'd try it out for a bit as an experiment.

Enjoy!

Adam

It's a whole new side of Mars. Well, maybe only a handful of degrees of longitude from the Columbia Hills, but still. Another short take on the scale of the features at Gale Crater:

http://www.youtube.com/mannedmissionsdotco...u/0/xuXpfkVj3Nc

Screenshot:

Thanks!

Nope, no exaggeration. My parallel goals are beauty and accuracy. Of course, I'm eager for folks to point out flaws. The software is still in beta, after all.

EDIT: I should clarify that the colors *are* indeed exaggerated. The HiRISE DTMs don't give me color information, so it's basically an educated guess mixed with artistic license. As a user of the software, you can alter the colors to suit your fancy.

Hey folks,

Here are a couple of Youtube videos of (what I believe) is the most likely traversal area for Curiosity. Disclaimer: I wrote the software that is being used for these.

First, one made by Ryan Anderson (of the Martian Chronicles blog) flying above a possible traverse route: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hmD5l_4YjM...feature=related

Next, one I made that is more of a meandering path with no particular goal in mind other than to enjoy the scenery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBzNJV6D1JM

I'm very much looking forward to having my mind blown when MSL starts sending back images.

Adam H.

It's comments like that that keep the space monkeys coding. Well, the Earth dollars don't hurt, either. Thanks, helvick!

Thanks for letting me know. My testing resources are limited, but now that I'm aware I'll see if I can't do a fix for IE6. If you have difficulty with purchasing please shoot me a message.

Thanks! You have my permission to take time off work/school/everything else to get lost on Mars.

In fairness, I am *not* a graphic design expert, so critiques of the web site may be entirely justified!

Thanks much, Doug. I've been a lurker/admirer here for a while and the members of UMSF.com are really my target audience. Bear in mind, it's still in beta, so the terrain may melt, or little green men might take the application hostage. Me and my team of space monkeys have been hammering on it and it seems pretty stable at this point, but if folks give it a shot and encounter any problems, don't hesitate to drop me a line via the message system here or email 'contact AT mannedmissions.com'. If you are kind enough to send some dollars my way, your purchase will be good for upgrades *at least* through the first post-beta release or two.

Oh, and if you have any favorite HiRISE Digital Terrain Models that aren't yet available in the engine, let me know and I'll get them ready to roll ASAP.

Okay, now back to optimizing.