Live Stream tomorrow of photogrammetry expert working on MarsVR
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Jul 30, 2018 at 08:07:21 PM
Greetings CrowdExplorers,
Tomorrow our resident photogrammetry expert Az Balabanian (aka “The Wizard of Az”) is going to be live-streaming his working session to clean up the interior scans of the RAM module at the Mars Desert Research Station.
If you have never seen any of his videos, you will be in for a treat. Plus it will be a preview of the amazing cutting-edge and photo-realistic VR environment that we are working on for Phase 1 of MarsVR.
Follow the action tomorrow at 1pm Pacific time at: https://youtube.com/azbalabanian
If you can’t make it, we will post the video and an overall update on the project later this week. Some very exciting things have been in motion!
See you on YouTube! (And eventually on Mars in VR!)
-James Burk
Program Manager, MarsVR
First glimpses of MDRS terrain models!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 12:15:46 AM
Greetings CrowdExplorers,
I have some exciting news -- tonight our team got a preview of the completed MDRS 3-D terrain model. This is a single "asset file" (think of it like a really big computer image you would load up on your computer), and it has over one square mile of the real terrain around the MDRS. The team at AeroScout LLC, who flew drones at the MDRS a couple weeks ago and have experience in the mining industry (so they know geology!), gave us a preview of the terrain model which included flying all around the model, zooming in and out, and exploring all the areas around the MDRS using the free and open-source Blender program. We will be sharing this model asset file on Github later this summer, once it's fully processed and ready to go.
Here are some screenshots of what we saw today:
This was a very exciting moment because several of us have done a TON of work in getting to this point, but we are still early in the whole process. We hope to get an even higher-resolution version of this terrain model asset, and we will be integrating this into our VR environment over the summer.
Next up: In the near future, we will be getting some previews of the amazingly detailed photogrammetry work done inside the MDRS facilities, and (based on what I've already seen) I'm confident it will be making a big splash in the community...
Thank you to Ben Skogen, Casey Wheeler, Shannon Norrell, Az Balabanian, and Robert & Stephen Madsen who were our MDRS photogrammetry mission crew.
Until next time, I'll see you on Mars (in VR!)
-James Burk
Program Manager, MarsVR
Milestone complete: The MDRS has been fully scanned!
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 11:14:07 PM
Greetings CrowdExplorers,
Tonight I received some great news from our team onsite at the MDRS. They have completed all of our scans on Day 2, which is well ahead of schedule. They've already acquired over 15,000 high-resolution photos of the terrain around the MDRS using drones, cameras, and other scanning equipment. In addition, we have full coverage of the inside of the MDRS facilities, including some amazing 360 panoramas that you can walk around in, which are ready NOW! (see below) Our team is now preparing to return home so we can begin the huge amount of work to build our VR environment over this summer. So far, everything is on schedule and we are very excited about this milestone being completed!
Now for the good stuff: we used our donated Matterport camera to take dozens of 360 panoramic scans of the inside of all of the MDRS facilities, and thanks to the amazing cloud-based processing technology at Matterport, these have already been fully processed. We now present them to you.
These are not static 360 panoramas -- you can use your computer's arrow keys to move around inside of them. These are absolutely amazing high-quality scans, but I just want to point out that they are not reflective of the final result of our project. The open-source VR environment we will be building will be fully interactive and will have mission training scenarios, and other special content and activities to do while inside the VR simulation. I can't wait to see that in action, but for now this is something we can all enjoy!
MDRS Hab Interior Scan
This complete scan of the MDRS Hab interior allows you to walk around and (for the first time on Matterport) go inside all of the crew staterooms and other areas of the hab. In comparison to the 2014 scans done by Victor Luo (see below), these scans were done with the MDRS in a more "bare-bones" post-field season configuration, which is great since we can use these in conjuction with new 3-D models we'll build out and overlay onto the facilities for the purposes of our training scenarios.
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=hhaNGgbGSgA
It's interesting to compare our new MDRS Hab Interior Scan with the December 2014 Matterport scans done by Victor Luo (of Crew 144, and now at JPL) which show the MDRS in a lived-in field season configuration:
https://matterport.com/3d-space/mars-desert-research-station/
https://my.matterport.com/webgl_player/#model=bzKyjHxehHt
Here are the other MDRS facilities we scanned:
Science Dome
This is our primary lab space with all the science equipment and supplies needed for biology, geology, and other types of research to be done onsite.
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=5926dhZpH3V
The Musk Observatory (aka the MDRS Solar Observatory)
This observatory has been recently converted to be a Sun-focused observatory, but was our original astronomical observatory. It was built with funds donated by Elon Musk back in the early 2000s. (Before he became the real Tony Stark, or maybe a real-life James Bond villian. Love you Elon!)
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=v7PCk66MyF7
RAM (Repair and Assembly Module)
The RAM is our workshop where we can work on projects requiring tools and to repair existing hardware. This will be a great place for future mission content...
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=zKGSdnmUK6Q
MDRS Airlock
Scans of the MDRS Airlock with the internal door open & closed, which we will use to build our training scenario for going through the airlock. With this, you can study in detail all of the donors from our 2002 fundraising plaque, which people have asked about :) I can't wait to put some CrowdExplorer stickers next to this in our VR environment (and maybe IRL during our MarsVR Crew 197 rotation in October!)
MDRS Airlock Inner Door Open:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=LMQebgR49b2
MDRS Airlock Inner Door Closed:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=3FKsykVtoft
MDRS Hab Equipment Room
Scans of the MDRS Equipment room, which we will use for the training scenario of "gearing up" for your EVA.
MDRS Equipment Room:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=buwx3uwearG
MDRS Equipment Room 2:
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=v21Ax5Xk55v
This is amazing stuff, but this is only representative of the work we did inside the facilities. We have also met our goal of capturing over 1 square mile of terrain outside and around the vicinity of the MDRS, as well as several EVA sites. I can't wait to share that with you!
Until next time, I'll see you back at the MDRS soon (in VR!)
-James Burk
Program Manager, MarsVR
Program Update 5 – June 16th, 2018
almost 6 years ago
– Sat, Jun 16, 2018 at 12:34:31 AM
Greetings CrowdExplorers,
We are prepping to send out a crew to the MDRS comprised of Shannon Norrell and Az Balabanian who are flying from San Francisco, Robert and Stephen Madsen from Synaptix Games (also long-time Mars Society folks and past MDRS volunteers) in Grand Junction, CO, Ben Skogen from AeroScout in Grand Junction, and Casey Wheeler with GeoRanger, also from Grand Junction. Our goal is to fully scan the MDRS next week including the facilities inside & out and the terrain using drones.
I’ve arranged to send out several pieces of hardware to help them, including a sophisticated LIDAR unit that’s used in the construction industry, and we will also have an amazing Matterport 360 degree camera on loan from that company.
Today I also learned we have been approved by Microsoft to be a preferred developer of Windows Mixed Reality (which is the new name for the team working on Hololens) and they are sending us a kit including free hardware. I’ve been working to get this type of recognition from Microsoft for over 9 months, so this is a huge and deeply personal accomplishment for me given the experiences I’ve had related to Microsoft both recently and across my career. My first job ever was working on Microsoft Office as a PM fresh from college, and I’ve talked at length about my experience last year with the Hololens units at JPL and how they inspired the MarsVR project.
This week we were featured in the Red Bull blog and I also did an interview with a Denver, Colorado magazine, which will have an in-depth article about the Mars Society & MarsVR coming out soon. We will continue to get more press as this project goes on, because it is touching a nerve in the VR and Space communities, not to mention STEM education! All of what we are doing and planning to do has been very well received, and it humbles our team to know that we may make a real difference with public outreach towards increasing interest in the human exploration of Mars.
I am hopeful we will get the majority of our Photogrammetry and terrain models captured with this trip, and we will also be documenting (via video) what we’re doing at the MDRS in the hope that we can help create a short film about the project.
Until next time, I’ll see you on Mars!
-James Burk
Program Manager, MarsVR
MarsVR is being featured today on the Red Bull blog!
almost 6 years ago
– Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 01:48:47 PM
Today the Red Bull Blog is featuring a story about MarsVR!
#MarsGivesMeWings
And in case you missed it, here's our most recent Program Update #4 including info on the Texas A&M VR project that we are collaborating with now.
We start scanning the MDRS next week in force! Stay tuned for more updates...
-James Burk
Program Manager, MarsVR
