Museum's Mars display 'stretches imagination'

This panoramic view of the landing site on Mars is from Spirit's navigation camera. Images from the rover's left and right cameras are combined to produce 3-D images. NASA via Associated Press

By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

To be honest, 6-year-old Maile Hipp was more taken with the 3-D glasses in her sticky hands than with the panoramic image that traveled close to 104 million miles from the surface of Mars to one of three Deep Space Network antennas and ultimately to Bishop Museum in Honolulu.

Donna Date, 7, and Chance Deluca, 8, were among the visitors yesterday at Bishop Museum who viewed the latest images from Mars, some in 3-D. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

However interested little Maile may or may not have been in the special-delivery image, she and the dozen or so others who stopped by the planetarium kiosk yesterday can at least say they were witness to one of the most significant astronomical events of the past few years.

"It's hard to believe that there's actually a man-made thing on Mars right now shooting these photos," said Shari Hipp, a Mililani resident. "It really stretches the imagination."

Indeed, when the NASA rover Spirit safely touched down on Mars Saturday, four years after the last U.S. attempt to land on the planet, professional astronomers and everyday space buffs breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Relief turned to excitement over the next two days as Spirit began transmitting surprisingly clear black-and-white images of the planet's surface back to Earth.

Through a special agreement with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managing the project for NASA, Bishop Museum has access to the latest images from Mars, which are shown at the Breaking News Gallery in the planetarium.

Planetarium producer Carolyn Kaichi said about 40 enthusiastic amateur astronomers turned up first thing Sunday to see the first available images. Traffic was considerably lighter yesterday because of improved weather conditions (fewer people go to museums on sunny days) and the availability of Spirit images on the Internet.

Still, Kaichi said, the successful landing and the transmission of images have fueled broad public interest in Mars.

This summer, thousands flocked to the museum to get a get a good look at the planet, which moved closer to Earth in July and August (34.6 million miles) than at any point in about 57,000 years.

"It's a little slower now because this isn't a totally tangible experience," Kaichi said. "But to me, this is even more profound because we're actually there."

Lori Gandeza of Mililani said the new Mars images reminded her of when she was in school watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.

"It's like a whole progression," she said.

Chris Peterson, data manager with the University of Hawai'i's Pacific Regional Planetary Data Center and president of the Hawaiian Astronomical Society, said Mars is a perennial favorite of the public.

"The possibility that there might have been, or may still be, life on Mars is very appealing to people," Peterson said. "In addition, the robotic explorers that are used in these missions are sort of human-like — they can move around — and that kind of gives us a feeling of being there. They almost put us in that position of being an explorer."

What he appreciates in particular is the scientific achievement of having the rovers perform complex missions by remote control from more than 100 million miles away.

"It's quite an achievement when you consider that two-thirds of all Mars missions have failed historically," he said.

Bishop Museum planetarium manager Mike Shanahan agrees. He and Kaichi have visited the Jet Propulsion Lab and have seen first-hand the level of precision needed to pull off this sort of mission.

"They put so much of their heart and soul into it, you understand how frustrating it is when a project fails after three or four years of intense work and how exhilarating it is when it succeeds," he said.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 535-2461.