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LIVE FROM MARS: Educators Classroom Connection
Gates Intermediate School
Mr. Lindgren
Charlie Lindgren's students working with NIH software and image processing
In conjunction with the P.E.T. Project we also studied what instruments
were on and how the instruments on Global Surveyor and Pathfinder/Sojourner worked.
I did this as a voluntary project because we only have two Internet links in the
building so a general assignment was out of the question. About four or five students
in each class accepted the task and presented a program that lasted for a full 42-minute
class! I gave them the "Live from Mars" URL as a starting point, and they went from there.
One instrument that sparked the interest of each group was the Thermal Emission Spectrometer
(TES) found on the Global Surveyor. We created a great demonstration of what this instrument
does, and many of you should be able to do it, too.
As my students understood it, TES takes an infrared photograph of the Martian surface.
Somehow the NASA scientists have been able to measure the amount of heat that different
minerals emit as a color. Because of this scientists will be able to look at the TES
photograph and identify the minerals on the surface of Mars. How to show this?
Using the 8-bit Camera
The camera is really easy to use!
What we did was to take a photograph of a rock sample (in this case lava from Fillmore,
Utah) using an 8-bit black and white camera. The image was then pasted into the NIH imaging
software. Then we took this dull, black and white image, went under Options to Color Table
and selected "system." The end result is a beautiful color mosaic.
black and white view of the lava
same picture color enhanced
This really isn't doing the same thing as TES because it is using visible light. It is
assigning a different color to each shade of grey, but the students had no trouble
understanding the concept. It was a great hit.
Below are students giving oral reports:
Describing the Journey of Global Surveyor
Global Surveyor will photograph the many different surface features on Mars
