NASA
January 14, 2003
10:30 a.m. CST
EventScope
EventScope is a 3 year-old project out of Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. The downloadable software is currently being used in about 36 middle schools, mostly in the Pennsylvania and Ohio area. EventScope has set up a virtual 3D Martian terrain environment that students can use to explore the surface of Mars. In addition, teachers can also use it to author their own curriculum and lessons. The program is standards aligned and useable in the classroom.
EventScope is working with JPL to stream the latest data from MER into classrooms. Interaction goals include enabling active exploration of the Martian surface and providing background information so students can understand the mission and its science goals (see slide 17).
The program will be valuable during surface operations. It will integrate new results, in near real time, into the program so classrooms can follow along with discoveries as they are made. Alliance member may have other ideas on how to use the product, or parts of it, during operations. It may be useful for educator workshops or as part of a large visualization and story line creation. Museums may also want to use EventScope for a cut slide show of very interesting 3D terrain with possibly some seamless dissolve between them.
Currently, all of the data is static from the Mars Global Surveyor and Viking. Once MER data becomes available modifications and educational commentary will be downloadable.
To distribute EventScope in the past, install CDs were created and someone went to the schools to install them. Now it is available downloadable to anyone (www.eventscope.com) in two different versions. They also have lesson background information for teachers and some quizzes available for download. They are working on marketing aspects for the product.
Each student logs in with their own ID. If a teacher wants them to save their work, they can under their unique user name.
Hyperlinks can be authored without any programming knowledge with an additional authoring tool.
EventScope has created multi scale models beginning with a Martian globe. The user is able to see different areas that have higher resolution models. Those areas are highlighted in blue. By dragging the mouse, they can rotate Mars to find a particular area. Clicking “forward” steps the user through the lesson. Dragging the mouse allows the user to explore the 3D virtual environment. (See Power Points slides 1-3).
When the forward button is clicked it brings up the next lesson page. Each page represents a view of the 3D model, zooming down to the surface area in the lesson. If the user keeps clicking forward through this model, they will be brought through several different views of the area, with different information. The lesson is used to display the area itself and can be used as a prop by teachers.
Navigation can always be performed with the forward and back buttons (see slide 7).
At the last page, if the user clicks forward again, they will go back to the Mars library, where they can view other sites. If forward is clicked again at the Mars library, it will bring the user back to the login menu. This is called the lesson ring because that is where all of the lessons are shown in a 3D manner.
In a particular lesson ring, the user can click and drag to
rotate it around. Each lesson gives information that is the basis for the
subsequent activities (see slides 4-5). The user can then decides what feature
to investigate next by clicking on a blue square (slide 6). Features include
craters, central peaks, preserved craters, ejecta blankets, and raised rims.
The lesson asks users to go through each of these different features and
explore them individually. When complete the software sends the user to the
next type of feature/crater (see slide 8).
The surface annotations graphically explain concepts (see slide 9).
There are smooth transitions between a single 3D model. EventScope uses VRML models. Each model created can be explored in a smooth, gliding fashion. If the user switches to a different model, a loading icon is given and there is a slight wait. That is the current state of technology.
The craters and similar platforms are created from NASA MOLA and MDIM data as well as artist’s renderings. The program understands Planetary Data System (PDS) labeling therefore it can handle archived data as well as real time data for the MER missions.
Texture overlays can be added. If the texture was turned off, there would be a rainbow colored surface. The color is based on the elevation. Users can see the elevation more explicitly this way. A button allows the user to toggle the texture on and off. In the future it may be possible to have multiple textures. This would be of particular interest for landing sites and for geological science sites for example, mineralogy maps.
After the lesson the user must correctly answer three or more questions to proceed. Explanations are provided for incorrect and correct answers. Answering is done by clicking on the correct graphic or “hotspot” area. (See slide 12-14).
Existing Curriculum includes (see slide 15):
Impact Craters
· How we’ve explored Mars
· Earth & Mars comparison
· How impact craters are formed
· Erosion and crater types
· Crater features
· Superposition
· Crater Mission
Water and Wind
· Introduction to water and wind
· Water erosion basics
· Earth & Mars comparison
· Cross-cutting
· Relative age dating
· Final mission
Lessons are created with the Remote Experience Authoring Tool, written by Platform Digital LLC. It requires no programming experience and takes about 1 hour to learn (see slide 16).
EventScope does not run on Mac machines, and this may present a problem for some museums. For example, Adler is almost entirely Mac based. The program only runs on Windows at this point. It has not been tried with Solaris or Linux but will be tested soon.
EventScope’s, Mike Wagner’s contact info
Visualization Alliance
JPL has been capturing a lot of the test footage for the MER mission, most recently in HD. There is an exhaustive internal review process before things clear for public release. As soon as that is done these products will be available to everyone. There are six tapes through the document review process. One of these is HD the others are regular beta. 69 of the 80 tapes have been logged in. They show very interesting things, like the parachute test and the air bag tests and all the different stages of the mission. Some of the partners have already expressed an interest and have been talking about taking that data and producing various pieces. There is discussion on how to make these tapes more affordable to the alliance via Michelle subsidy. (contact Michelle Viotti 818/354-8774.)
To make sure that the goals and priorities of all parties are aligned, feedback is encouraged.