Topic: Be A Martian!

[Simon]

A Nasa website called "Be A Martian" allows users to play games while at the same time sorting through hundreds of thousands of images of the Red Planet.

The number of pictures returned by spacecraft since the 1960s is now so big that scientists cannot hope to study them all by themselves.  The agency believes that by engaging the public in the analysis as well, many more discoveries will be made.  

The new citizen-science website went live on Tuesday at http://BeAMartian.jpl.nasa.gov. (Requires Microsoft Silverlight)



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8364865.stm

[Clive]

We haven't had a martian face for a long time so one is bound to be discovered using this method.  I think that using spare computer power to analyze data is a good idea.  The original instigator of this forum (Adept) was one of the country's leading SETI@home number crunchers and had his name up in lights on their website.

[Simon]

Really?  All this time, and I didn't know that.

[Clive]

He was very proud of his achievements with the SETI project.  Every time he called in to see me he would show me how well he was doing.  I think he reached No.7 in the 'Hall of Fame' or whatever they called it before he was taken away in that flying saucer.  Oops, have I said too much?   

[sam]

yikes... and I'm at one of the homes of SETI.. haven't asked any questions about it to the serious astronomers yet though 

[Clive]

Well tonight is your big chance Sam. I, for one, welcome our new masters.   

[sam]