2 messages.---------------------Johnnie
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>Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 15:29:56 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Duane F. Marble" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Extra-terrestrial mapping
There was an interesting Ph.D. thesis done several years ago by
one of Peter Kellar's students at the University of Victoria on
the geodetic and cartographic problems of mapping the moons of
Mars.
There is, of course, a substantial GIS under construction for
Mars itself.
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Professor Duane F. Marble E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Geography Home Page: http://www.geography.ohio-state.edu
The Ohio State University Telephone: (614) 292-2250
Columbus, OH 43210 Fax: (614) 292-6213
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>From: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 12:52:00 -0800
>Subject: Re: Extra-terrestrial mapping
Darius,
i like this one. let me know if it does the job:
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Terranova: Planet of the Day
http://bavard.fourmilab.ch/terranova/terranova.html
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Welcome to Terranova, your on-line Planet of the Day.
You can view today's Planet of the Day as a:
Small GIF image (about 35K).
Large GIF image (about 110K).
Large JPEG image (about 20K). This provides the best quality and
fastest download, but requires a
JPEG-equipped browser such as Netscape.
There are about 200 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Over the next
million years our descendents will spread
among the stars in an exponential explosion of life, remaking the galaxy
as surely as life has remolded Earth in its
own image.
Let's be conservative, and assume that only one star in 100 has a planet
capable of being made into a habitable
world, and that only star systems with such planets are ever occupied.
That means 2 billion barren planets upon
which to sow the seeds of life, or 2000 per year for the next million
years--about five a day. Life grows
geometrically, so the rate of expansion will be slow at first but will
inexorably compound into a spherical wavefront
of life propagating outward at a substantial fraction of the speed of
light. As the settlement of the galaxy builds
toward the crescendo, there will come a time when a new habitable planet
is created every day, then even faster
until the galaxy is everywhere alive. And, if our distant descendants are
no more imaginative than we, about 75%
will be probably named "New Earth": Terranova.
Imagine the variety of worlds and wealth of living species flourishing
upon them! Water worlds, desert planets,
mountains that reach above the sky--every habitat imagined in science
fiction will become real, and many more yet
to spring from the imagination of world-makers born half a million years
from now.
Terranova is a highly premature anticipation of this exhilarating
milestone in the endless adventure of life and
intelligence. Every day (around 10 A.M. Universal Time, when the load on
my server is lightest), a new planet is
created using random parameters, and an image of it, as seen from the
bridge from your approaching starship, is
produced. Imagine yourself gazing down on another living world and
wondering how the people had shaped that
world, and the world the people.
You can also view yesterday's Planet of the Day as a Small GIF, Large
GIF, or JPEG image.
If you're interested in how the images are generated, please consult the
details.
Related Web pages at this site:
Solar System Live: interactive orrery.
Earth Viewer.
by John Walker
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for more stuff, search "imaginary#" on infomine maps & gis
http://logic17.ucr.edu/mapsinfo.html
regards,
Larry Cruse
UCSD
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