1. An Undergraduate Endeavor: Assembling a Live Planetarium Show About Mars
Allison McGraw1,2
1The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ,
Introduction
Locations of Martian Interest
Seeing Red .
Viewing the mysterious red planet Mars goes back thousands of years with just the human eye but in more recent years the growth of telescopes, satellites and lander missions unveil unrivaled detail of the Martian surface that tells a story worth listening to. This planetarium show will go through the observations starting with the ancients to current understandings of the Martian surface, atmosphere and inner-workings through past and current Mars missions. Visual animations of its planetary motions, display of high resolution images from the Hi-RISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) and CTX (Context Camera) data imagery aboard the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) as well as other datasets will be used to display the terrain detail and imagery of the planet Mars with a digital projection system. Local planetary scientists and Mars specialists from the Lunar and Planetary Lab at the University of Arizona will be interviewed and used in the show to highlight current technology and understandings of the red planet. This is an undergraduate project that is looking for collaborations and insight in order gain more structure in script writing that will teach about this planetary body to all ages in the format of a live planetarium show.
These are the first locations to be chosen for display within the planetarium show.
Using high-resolution data imagery from the HiRISE camera in orbit around the planet Mars has given scientists more insight than ever before about the mysterious red next door neighbor planet.
This high-resolution imagery is unlike any other besides a few limited Earth-based satellites with a high-resolution camera onboard.
The existence of the HiRISE camera will be greatly highlighted in this planetarium show.
The involvements of the University of Arizona, the Lunar and Planetary Lab, the HiRISE camera with Mars missions from the past will be greatly highlighted in this planetarium show.
HiRISE operates and maintains a website where anyone from the public and research community can view, download and learn more about the current science happenings with Mars at: hirise.lpl.arizona.edu
Faulting within layered deposits in Candor Chasma
McLaughlin Crater Dunes
Workflow of Show Production
The script for the show is currently under construction and goes in conjunction to go with the Locations of Martian Interest.
The theater operator conducting the planetarium show will follow a detailed script provided in the form of display panels of text within the planetarium software, Uniview 2.0, displayed in the Flandrau Science Center EOS Dome in Tucson, AZ.
In the beginning, Mars will be displayed in the night sky as viewed from an Earth- based position at night:
Benefits and Goals
IN EDUCATION:
Teachers and professors who use the planetarium for undergraduate astronomy and planetary science classes could use the captured terrain model flybys as a teaching tool at no cost to them.
The target audience for the show is for all ages above 5 years. This allows a wide range of audience members.
This planetarium show has the potential of reaching hundreds of individuals that come to the Flandrau Science Center and EOS Planetarium per week:
Student groups from the K-12 community are booked Monday through Friday
Adult and senior groups are booked Monday through Sunday
Daily public shows are offered Tuesday through Sunday
Undergraduate classes are taught in the EOS Planetarium Monday through Friday
IN RESEARCH:
Being able to effectively display a visualization makes a substantial difference in quality of detail that can be observed.
The Flandrau EOS Planetarium uses a Uniview 2.0 system which holds the capability to show off the high-resolution images from the HiRISE camera.
Scientists and researchers could use the display of the high-resolution DTMs to their benefit in the planetarium.
Anyone who desires to understand the Martian topograpghy in this detail might find it useful to watch this particular planetarium show.
One of the hopes of this show production is that the steps needed to format the DTM into a useable format that future theater operators could manipulate to add to the Locations of Martian Interest.
This process could continue and the amount of terrain flybys would increase, this would give the guests more options to choose from and therefor each of the showings could be unique and create a special atmosphere.
Erosion of North Polar Layered Deposits
The guests will begin “flying to Mars”, leaving Earth they will head to Mars, viewing the entire red planet above their heads.
Multiple flyby video captures from the list of Locations of Martian Interest will then be watched with live commentary of context location on Mars, and why it is of particular geological interest.
Each Location of Martian Interest will be narrated and pre-recorded either by a voice specialist or by a Martian Scientist who studies in that particular area of surface process/region of Mars. The operator will simply hit a play button for each individual flyby video. Each flyby will be from 2 to 6 minutes long.
If it is manageable with the size of group/guests in the planetarium, the theater operator will have the option of allowing the guests to vote for which locations they will visit and fly to first, second, third, etc. This will create a unique experience for the guests involved.
The terrain flybys are being created using the free software Blender.
The original terrain models of the surface of Mars are created from HiRISE student research employees at the University of Arizona. These are publically available from the HiRISE main page: hirise.org//dtm/
This show follows the standards that the Flandrau Science Center prides itself on: live planetarium shows, a unique guest experience, and how the University of Arizona plays a large role in the astronomical, planetary and geological communities. Although there will be short video captures played, all other parts in between will be narrated live by the theater operator.
The total runtime of the show will be 45 mins.
There is currently no funding for the production of this show. The work conducted here is an undergraduate endeavor to teach about the planet Mars and its many wonders and current knowledge.
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Monitor Slopes In Coprates Chasma
I would like to thank the University on Arizona, The Lunar and Planetary Lab, the Flandrau Science Center and EOS Planetarium, HiRISE, Maria Schuchardt, Shiloe Fontes, Michael Magee, Sarah Sutton, Matt Chojnacki, Alfred McEwen and the Associated Students of The University of Arizona for supporting this work.