Mars OnLine using CRG VXInteractive™

One of the missions of CRG is to use advances in 3D graphics with 3D online learning environments to support next generation educational systems/tools. The CRG MARS on-line project allows student/teachers/researchers to access information that represents real data collected about the planet Mars. Using the CRG VXInteractive™ client, users can tour the face of Mars on-line.

The project takes data made available from NASA generated by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), an instrument aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). Mars Global Surveyor began orbiting the red planet on September 12, 1997. The MOLA data being used by the CRG Mars On-line project provides some 1 billion elevation measurements gathered between 1998 and 2001 by NASA. The MOLA instrument was designed and built by the Laser Remote Sensing Branch of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard. MOLA has not collected altimeter data since June 30, 2001, when the instrument oscillator stopped.

Panorama Olympus Mons, Top Cone (MARS_19.0_227.0).

The alpha version of Mars On-line went active on January 8, 2003. In 2005, the University of Montana created curriculum materials for use with the environment to support math and science instruction for 5th grade students. The system currently is only supported by the version 3 CRG VXI Client. It is expected to provide version 5 support in the future.

CRG Mars On-Line Project Details


Portals	253,440 contiguous portals (352 portals NS x 720 portals EW)
Compressed Portal Record sent from Server to Client	Variable 2k-8k bytes
Size of Portal Object Created from Compressed Record	220K bytes
Portal Size Representations	Single Portal: 29.632 square km
	Displays 8 x 8 portals
Maximum Visible Distance	88.896 km
Portal Coverage of Mars	97.777% of Mars
Visual Scaling	1:463m horizontal, 1:100m vertical (Server defined and changeable)
Travel Speed	Approx 2700kph
Polygons Per Portal	High-Res: 8192 Polygons
	Low-Res: 4096 Polygons
Number of Visible Portals	High-Res: 9 portals
	Low-Res: 16 portals
	Total Visible: 25 portals
Database	12 million group links entries
	6 million portal connections
Number of Mapped US Geological Survey Features	Over 1400 features included in on-line bookmark system.
PC Operational Information
GeForce2, PIII, 800Mhz, APG 2x	73737 Polygons at 23FPS
GeForce4, PIV, 2GHz, APG 4x	73737 Polygons at 61FPS
Total Number of Supported Users on Single Server Configuration	150 Users

NASA, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Data

Number of Points in Data Set	1 billion
Raw Size of Data Set	2 gigabytes

Nicholson crater central peaks (MARS_0.5_195.0).