Mars Spoon For Craters
Global Nominee
Mars Spoon For Craters received a Global Nomination.
Create a custom world map generator module using a gaming framework or engine of your choice that leverages altimeter, terrain and imagery data to render realistic worlds. This will involve the use of a World Map Tile Service client to leverage over 1 TB of Mars and Vesta data for use in world generation.
This Minecraft Plugin pulls Altimeter Data and Color Images from NASA's API to create the surface of Mars in Minecraft! The entire surface of Mars can be crossed in this Minecraft map, from the landing spot of the Curiosity Rover, to the towering Olympous Mons, and then on to the poles covered with dry ice. Kids and adults alike can explore the planet like never before, getting a neat perspective on areas previously viewable only from satellite imagery and rover-captured snapshots. The nature of Minecraft encourages exploration, and the ability for players to place themselves on Mars will inspire aspiring astronauts and scientists to follow their hopes into space.
Each block scales to around 463 meters. The colors are matched with a number of clay and ice blocks to find the most similar block based on color. Additionally, the height of the block is determined from the grayscale altimeter data. The combined effect is an immersive world, completely generated from real data captured from Mars.
https://api.nasa.gov/mars-wmts/catalog/Mars_MGS_MOLA_DEM_mosaic_global_463m_8.html - Interactive Grayscale Altimeter map
https://api.nasa.gov/mars-wmts/catalog/Mars_Viking... - Color Images
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kqjl981WWxWZPk...- Grayscale Altimeter Information
http://marstrek.jpl.nasa.gov/ - Interactive map
