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"Earth views of Space and Space views of Earth"
In partnership with the Houston Museum of Natural Science
We have created the "Public Connection" in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS), by developing interactive real-time displays of real-time earth and space science data. The "Space Update" software has now been fully field-tested by over 800,000 visitors and is available for purchase for display at museums and schools! The all-new "Earth Update" software is also ready for sale. This project was initially funded by NASA/Goddard's Digital Library Technology Project and is now part of the Learning Technologies Program. "Earth Update" is funded by NASA's Office of Earth Science.
| Our logo, a 6-pointed star, is created from interlocking triangles. The silver triangle symbolizes observing space from the Earth (the bottom point is man with two upward arms reaching to the solar system on the left and the galaxy and beyond on the right). The blue triangle symbolizes observing Earth from space (the top point is a spacecraft viewing down to observe the curved Earth below). The former symbolizes our "Space Update" software - the second, our "Earth Update" software. |  |
Visitors to "Space Update" in the Museum Grand Entry Hall
The
explosion of net-accessible images and data has unfortunately resulted in
two classes of people: the "information elite" who have unlimited
free access through their schools or workplaces, or who can afford such
access from home; and the "information illiterates" who do not
have the hardware or software to tie into the "information superhighway".
This projects builds a very important "offramp" so that museum
visitors and school children can access these wonderful sources of information
with no special training - everything is "point and click". Modules
include quicktime movies, images, and sound, all with very rapid, user-chosen,
access. All modules have imagery updated automatically in the background
so that an up-to-date image is always immediately available to the visitor.
(A web-based system is too slow and confusing for the average visitor, and
allows access to inappropriate material; our modules need no attendant).
Both "museum versions" and "school versions" of the
software have been developed. Both Mac and PC platforms are supported in
the school version (all development is being done on Macs because of ease
of programming and powerful multimedia tools). Special Museum versions of
the software (Mac only) have two screens, to allow many users at once, or
to allow the second screen to be projected on a video projector. The software not only presents archival images (such as images from planetary encounters), it focuses on newly released imagery (Comets, Hubble Space Telescope, Mars Pathfinder & Surveyor). In addition, the modules display automatically-updated imagery, such as hourly weather maps and satellite weather photos and daily images of the Sun at various wavelengths of light from ground-based observatories. One module characterizes the daily space weather by presenting real-time information on the hazards of space from programs run at Rice University, based on real-time data from ground-based and space-based observatories.
GRAND OPENING JULY 20, 1995
Three computer-based interactive kiosks opened to the public July 20, 1995. They are: EARTH TODAY, SPACE WEATHER, and HOUSTON TODAY.
EARTH TODAY highlights Earth resources and Earth weather.
Weather maps and satellite weather images are updated hourly. Hurricane
tracking charts are updated several times daily in hurricane season. Other
imagery, such as bioactivity maps and sea temperature maps, are updated
as available. SPACE WEATHER includes real-time predictions of space weather from various online sources; images of the sun from the Solar Data Analysis Center , auroral forecasts from the University of Alaska Poker Flat Research Program and other real-time information on the hazards of space.
HOUSTON TODAY highlighted the Houston area, showing weather graphs and maps from the "WeatherNet2" school-based system of local AWS weather stations (affilliated with KPRC-TV). One of the weather stations is located at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. This software has now been superseded by the "Earth Update" software and the web-based access to weather data from AWS.
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connect@space.rice.edu | UPDATED: 11-06-02 |