Applied Information Systems Program Annual PI Meeting

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Applied Information Systems Program Annual PI
Meeting
ADVISER
Advanced Visualization In Solar System
Exploration and Research

• April 4-6, 2005
• NASA Ames Research Center

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ADVISER Project Highlights

• 1) Designed to research, advance and apply
  visualization tools for
• Space science knowledge.
• Exploration capabilities.
• Teaching and outreach.
• 2) ADVISER (Advanced Visualization in Solar
  System Exploration and Research).
• A problem-solving environment (PSE) for planetary
  geosciences integrates and extends state of the
  art in hardware and software technologies.
• 3) Approach
• Place geoscientists on planetary surfaces
  and provide them with modern versions of
  traditional tools to solve significant scientific
  problems.

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ADVISER The Concept

• Traditional Earth geology Bottom Up
• Investigate in detail at the local scale.
• Build to the regional and global scale.

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ADVISER The Concept

• Traditional Planetary geology Top Down
• Investigate first at the global scale.
• Fit in and test at the regional and local scale.
  
• Vision
• Place geologists in the field on the planets
  with the tools they need.

Mars
Moon
Venus
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ADVISER The Scientific Problems

• The North Polar Region of Mars
• The Martian Crustal Dichotomy Boundary

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ADVISER The Scientific Problems

• Tropical Mountain Glaciers on Mars
• Human Exploration Sites on Mars

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ADVISER The Team at Brown University

• (1) Department of Geological Sciences
• (2) Department of Computer Science
• (3) Center for Computation and Visualization
• James W. Head III (1)
• Andries van Dam (2)
• Sam Fulcomer (3)
• Andy Forsberg (2)
• Prabhat (3)
• Graduate Students
• Sarah Milkovich (1), Caleb Fassett (1), David
  Shean (1).
• Undergraduate Students
• Graham Rosser(2), Marshall Agnew(1), Michael
  Frederickson(2).
• Collaborators Mark Duchaineau (LLNL)

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ADVISER Highlights

• The ADVISER PSE has four basic parts
• Geoscientist on the surface.
• 2. Importation and visualization of multiple data
  sets.
• 3. Field kit development.
• 4. Ancillary virtual field instrument development.

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ADVISER PSE

• Geoscientist on the surface.
• Science Tools Maps versus Immersive Virtual
  Reality

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ADVISER PSE

• Importation and visualization of multiple data
  sets.

Topography Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter Morpholog
y Viking, Mars Orbiter Camera, Mars Express
High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), Physical
Properties THEMIS Daytime and Nighttime
IR Atmospheric Properties NASA Ames
GCM Mineralogy THEMIS, HRSC and OMEGA
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ADVISER PSE

• Field Kit Development Ancillary Virtual Field
  Instruments.
• Traditional geological field kit and field
  instruments
• Brunton compass (directions, slopes, strike/dip
  orientation of layers).
• Aerial photographs Relative locations,
  documentation, mapping.
• GPS Precise location.
• Altimeter Altitudes.
• Atmospheric and weather conditions Temperature,
  pressure, wind speed, wind direction.
• Camera Regional settings, local settings, sample
  documentation.
• Field Notebook Detailed descriptions,
  observations, weather.

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ADVISER PSE

• ADVISER Field Kit Ancillary Virtual Field
  Instruments.
• Geo-Ops Menu with selectable items elevation of
  any point chosen, relative elevations,
  topographic profiles, slope determination, strike
  and dip of layers.
• Traverse Map Location of path on surface and
  stations.
• Virtual Photography Documentation of individual
  images.
• Virtual GPS Exact location, tracking of traverse
  and stations.
• PDA Field notebook record host of data, notes,
  traverse.

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ADVISER Software

• Open Source
• C / Linux / OpenGL
• Immersive
• Cave, PowerWall
• Non-Immersive
• Desktop, Fishtank
• Tiled displays

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ROAM-2

• Collaboration with Mark Duchaineau (LLNL)
• High performance handling of terrain texture
• View dependent continuous level of detail
  refinement
• Future extensions for texture and terrain paging

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ADVISER Current Capabilities

• Interactive fly-through (30 fps) of 8k x 8k
  patches
• Import registered data through ArcMAP
• MOC, THEMIS, HRSC images
• MOLA topography
• Import and display GCM data
• Field Kit and Virtual Field Instruments
• Many capabilities developed.
• Queries (elevation, dip/strike, terrain profiles,
  etc.)
• Compass, Lat/Lon, Traverse Planner and Traverse
  Map.

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ADVISER Current Applications

• Science Analysis
• Analysis of Mars North Polar deposits and
  layering, strike/dip measurements, climate change
  implications.
• Analysis of Mars dichotomy boundary major
  degradation processes.
• Analysis of structure and morphology of tropical
  mountain glaciers.
• Mission Planning
• NASA/JPL North Polar Reference Design Mission
  (Palmer Quest) traverses.
• Antarctic Dry Valley Field Operations Campsite
  selection and surface traverse planning, and
  helicopter photodocumentaton operations
  planning.
• Teaching at the Undergraduate and Graduate Level
  
• Geology 16 Freshman seminar Exploration of
  Mars (21 students).
• Geology 5 Earth, Moon and Mars (120
  students).
• Geology 291 Problems in Mars Climate History
  (10 students).
• Geology 292 Problems in Antarctic Geoscience
  (5 students).
• Demonstrations
• Illustrating concepts and capabilities to
  interested parties and visitors DOE (LANL,
  ORNL) NASA (GSFC, JSC, JPL, LaRC, HQ) NOAA
  (NCAR) Brown RISD IBM Discovery Channel The
  Planets, etc..
• 
  Results reported at 36th
  Lunar and Planetary Science Conference,
  Houston,Texas, March 2005.

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ADVISER Teaching - Students Go to Mars

• In the classroom
  and on location

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ADVISER First-Year Accomplishments

• Imported and visualized multiple data sets MOLA
  altimetry, Viking, MOC, THEMIS and HRSC image
  data sets,
• Started to produce wind vectors and values for
  different seasonal atmospheric and climate
  conditions.
• Placed 18 geoscientists (faculty, graduate
  students) on the surface of Mars to address
  scientific problems.
• Developed important aspects of the Field Kit
  (field location, strike and dip determination,
  instant altimetry and profiles, traverse
  recording) and provided the geoscientists with
  these tools in the IVR environment.
• Developed ancillary field instruments (e.g.
  virtual photography, virtual GPS, and the PDA
  field notebook) and provided the geoscientists
  with these tools in the IVR environment.

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ADVISER First-Year Accomplishments

• 6. Integrated ROAM 2 rendering system into IVR
  environment built toolkit on top of it.
• 7. Provided support for immersive display
  environments.
• 8. Integrated ArcMap to formalize the initial
  correlation of data sets for enhancing data
  preparation for importing to immersive
  environment.
• Developed Tablet PC pen-based user interface for
  traverse planning.
• Produced New Science Results for Mars
• Produced New Science Results for Antarctica
  Imported digital topography and IKONOS image data
  to the IVR environment and planned camp locations
  and field traverses. Results placed in this
  environment for further correlation and analysis.
• Applied to NASA/JPL North Polar Mission Design
  (Palmer Quest).

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ADVISER Upcoming Plans

• 1. Incorporation of the IVR facility for an
  Engineering course on mission design.
• 2. Better support for import/export with ArcGIS
• 3. Develop tool functionality in a desktop
  version.
• 4. Develop initial mechanisms for
  tele-collaborative viewing within Brown.
• 5. Develop initial mechanisms for
  tele-collaborative viewing outside of Brown at
  NASA and with other users.

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ADVISER Upcoming Plans

• 6. Develop data management solutions for out of
  core data sets, including developing techniques
  so that large data sets have low impact on
  interactivity (high frame rate and low latency).
• 7. Continue debriefing by users and more formal
  measures of system utility.
• 8. Complete Education and Public Outreach
  proposal and submit.
• 9. Extend to three additional science themes and
  topics.

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ADVISER Tracking

• 1. Undergraduate university students filled out
  forms on their use and analysis of the facility
  and made suggestions for improvement.
• 2. Graduate students have discussed and described
  their experiences with students and faculty with
  all IVR facility personnel in attendance. More
  detailed reports are underway.

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ADVISER Relevance to NASA

• 1. These efforts help to fulfill the fundamental
  goals and objectives of the NASA AISR Program,
  and address the major goals of NASA as an Agency,
  including the Presidents Exploration Initiative.
• 2. Relevant technologies Interactive 3D terrain
  visualization with very large data sets (high
  resolution topography, image and related data).

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ADVISER Application toNASA Missions and Programs

• 1. Application to NASA Office of Space Science
  research programs as described above.
• 2. Direct application to Palmer Quest, a NASA
  Nuclear Mission Design Study in conjunction with
  the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The facility
  was used to site landing sites on the North Polar
  Cap of Mars, to design traverses with the
  companion rover, and to verify design and
  traverse trafficability and capability.
• 3. Initiation of application to NASA Astronaut
  Candidate Training Using for site selection and
  traverse planning for a human reference mission
  to Mars for broad concept certification and for
  NASA Astronaut training.