Maestro: Keep up with vehicle traffic on Mars

Jan 26, '04 11:11:00AM

Contributed by: robg

Maestro imageThe macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]

If you're fascinated by the Mars landers (Spirit and Opportunity), then you'll want to take a look at Maestro. Maestro is a "lite" version the software that NASA uses to work with the two rovers. Written in Java, it's relatively easy to get working, though you'll have to have 10.3 -- you need Apple's Java 3D and Advanced Imaging Update, which requires 10.3.1 or newer. Both Maestro and the Java updates are somewhat sizable -- about 45MB in total, so you'll want a fast connection or a lot of time on your hands!

Once you've downloaded and installed Maestro and the Java 3D updates, you head back to the Maestro site to download data updates. These smaller (under 4MB) files contain data that's been sent back by the rovers. At present, there are two Spirit data files, but none for Opportunity. Download the data files, launch Maestro, and click on the Spirit button on the main page. There are two windows - a Conductor and a Browser. The Conductor is pretty nifty, and gives you a series of images and audio of Spirit's arrival, step by step.

My only real gripe is that the installer wouldn't let me specify the install directory, only the drive. I had a bit of trouble when I first tried moving it after install, but a reinstall and re-move seemed to work just fine. Probably user error on the first try :).

There's a lot more you can do with Maestro, but it's this week's Pick of the Week for the amount of pure science imagery that it enables anyone to see and use. Pretty amazing stuff...

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