Hot Toys November 2009
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Just recently I was reminded how engaged my children are with all the news about space and especially all those rather amazing projects NASA does. In fact, there is a huge amount of material on NASA’s website that your children may find entertaining – and I am not just talking about videos that, for example, showed the most recent launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on Monday this week.
A new website just published enlists Earthlings to contribute to the mapping of Mars in a playful way. Of course, the site caters to the interests of children and there is a wealth of information your kids might enjoy.
“We’re at a point in history where everyone can be an explorer,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With so much data coming back from Mars missions that are accessible by all, exploring Mars has become a shared human endeavor. People worldwide can expand the specialized efforts of a few hundred Mars mission team members and make authentic contributions of their own.”
You can sign up for the site (you will need to provide an email address) here. Most of the content is wrapped into videos, but your kids can also help count craters in maps and find detailed images matching a much larger map.
NASA's Mars Lab
NASA said that Microsoft, which unveiled the project at the company’s current Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week, helped with the development of the site. Microsoft, which finds itself more and more in a race with Google to provide much more content about space, said that “Industry leaders like NASA and Microsoft have a social responsibility as well as a vested interest in advancing science and technology education.”
To encourage more public participation, the site also provides a virtual town hall forum where users can expand their knowledge by proposing Mars questions and voting on which are the most interesting to the community. NASA said that online talks by Mars experts will address some of the submitted questions.
