Midnight Planets

Midnight Mars Browser's successor is Midnight Planets, a sort of next-generation Midnight Mars Browser for iPhone, iPad and Mac. I've put years of work into making Midnight Planets, and the work is continuing. Thank you for your interest over the years. If you have questions about Midnight Planets, most of them should be answered on the about page.

Version 2.1

Midnight Mars Browser version 2.1 is now available on the Google Code downloads page. I am sort of forced into doing this update since Apple's iDisk is being discontinued toward the end of June, 2012, and Midnight Mars Browser previously downloaded its metadata updates from iDisk. The packaged metadata I put on the web is what allows the MMB Panorama feature to work, amongst other things. To keep getting new metadata, you'll need this new version of the program.

Please note that the Software Update feature built into MMB won't work to download this update; you'll need to download the zip file for version 2.1, unzip it and put it wherever you're keeping the program now. It would be wise to keep your older version of MMB around until you're satisfied that this new version works. Rename your old MMB application folder to "MidnightMarsBrowser_old" or something like that.

Midnight Mars Browser is now over seven years old and written in a language and development environment I no longer use; I mainly write iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch/Mac apps now. I know MMB is not a user-friendly program by modern standards, but since I still use it myself, I keep updating the metadata. Spirit rover has passed away, but Opportunity is still alive and making perhaps her most important discoveries to date. Roll on! And of course, Curiosity is on the way...

Closed

Just a note to inform people that MMB 2.x is no longer a supported project. It's still working at the time of writing, but if Exploratorium goes away, or if someday JPL changes their image posting format, then it will stop working, and it's unlikely that I'll have time to update it. I'm keeping the binaries available because people still get some use out of it, but there will be no further updates to this incarnation of the project. I continue to regularly update the metadata that drives the 2.x panorama feature, which MMB automatically downloads, but that's it. Thank you for your support.

Big Crater!

WOO HOO! Big Crater Big Crater Big Crater!

Midnight Mars Browser 2.0.2

Another change to Exploratorium requires an update to Midnight Mars Version 2.0.2, which is now available.

Midnight Mars Browser 2.0.1 Available

A 2.0.1 update is now available through the update software feature. This fixes a new incompatibility with the Exploratorium site which suddenly appeared, which was preventing images from being downloaded.

I've updated Google Code with the 2.0.1 packages as well, but I've run out of space there, so only the Windows version and the Mac on Intel versions are posted; Mac on PowerPC is not. I'll have to either get more space there or (more likely) just start putting the files somewhere else. I don't think many people use the Mac on PowerPC version.

I hope we're good to go now, since Oppy is off to see new sites.

One last thing... Midnight Mars Browser 1.x will no longer work to download images from Exploratorium, and I don't have time to fix it. Please update to 2.0.1, or if you simply cannot for some reason, you will have to use the option to download from the JPL site in 1.x.

Phoenix!

As everyone already knows, Phoenix has landed and is currently busy kicking ass and taking names (scientifically speaking) on the northern tundra of Mars. I've added some basic image-downloading functionality to MMB2.0, described here.

In other news, I've been very busy trying to launch some other software projects. I may have to start a new blog to promote that work at some point. Space-related work might get absorbed into that new blog at some point. Who can say?

Adding: The new blog will be Midnight Martian. I needed a name, and I'm out of ideas.

2.0 Dev 14

A little fix: the processor usage was reading high, even when the program should have been idle. Thanks to Doug over at Unmanned Spaceflight for pointing it out. I think the fix even boosts the performance a bit, but it's hard to tell.

Goals

Eagle-eyed readers may notice that there is a new mission statement for the project, over on the right-hand side there. (It's under the heading that says "Mission Statement".) Currently MMB2.0 is a program directed at a small set of fairly hard-core space enthusiasts, who already know quite a bit about the robotic Mars missions. My new goal is turn MMB2.0 into a program that anyone can download and start learning about the Mars Exploration Rover missions immediately. The way I intend to do that, in short, is to bring back the "Browser" in Midnight Mars Browser.

Right now the program could more accurately be called "Midnight Mars Downloader" - it is geared toward downloading images from the missions, and then viewing them. In contrast, a true "Browser" would mean wandering around "areas", and having the images download more-or-less automatically as needed. This is not a trivial excercise with missions as data-rich as the rovers, where there are many gigabytes of image data involved. Managing how much data is stored on a user's computer may be a challenge. But for our new target audience of casual users, especially ones who can't dedicate 10 gigabytes or more of hard drive space to MER image storage, this is the way to go.

A secondary shift here is one from where MMB was a program for following the latest images in the ongoing rover missions, to a mode where it is more a record of the missions gone by. This would be a natural progression to begin now, since the rovers are moving slowly with age these days, having already been successful beyond anyone's dreams. One could eventually view the software as a new "book" about the rovers. The content is data made publicly available by NASA; the program is just a new way to gather and organize it.

That's the plan. The good news is, a lot of the program is already in place. The changes just made with regard to movement in panorama mode (see the previous post) are a step in this direction. But there's a lot of work yet to get to this goal, and as always, it's just a spare-time project. So we'll see how things go. If you can support the project, please consider donating. Even a supportive comment on the blog would be appreciated.

2.0 Dev 13 - Movement by clicking on hotspots

In panorama mode, the rover model now automatically appears in position when you hover the mouse over a 'hotspot' in the rover tracking. And, when you click on the hotspot, the panorama view now shifts to that position. So now you can wander around in the rovers' footsteps just by clicking with the mouse.

As usual, you can download the latest here, or if you already have 2.0, you can use the "Update Software" feature in the Help menu.

Website Update

I've updated to a new Blogger template, and updated the site to emphasize MMB 2.0. Blogger's new template editing features are pretty impressive. Okay, maybe they're not that new, I just haven't been paying attention until now.

Also I've enabled comments once again - but with moderation turned on, to avoid spam.

Oh, and, if you use Midnight Mars Browser and want to support the project, the "Donate" button is back, over on the right.

Google Code

The Midnight Mars Browser project is now hosted here at Google Code. Google Code is a fantastic place for hosting small open-source software projects like MMB. Setup and administration is a breeze (so far, anyway), which is particularly important for a spare-time developer without a lot of spare time. I'll be updating the site with additional documentation, and updating the issues list, as time allows.

Metadata Vacation

Metadata updates will resume on January 2.

The rovers are moving so slowly these days, I'm guessing not much will happen for the next week anyway.

2.0 Dev Release 10

This update to 2.0 sees some reorganization to make it easier and less confusing to browse images.

The "Locations" view has been replaced by a new "Time Intervals" view. Previously, MMB panoramas contained all the images from one location. This doesn't always work very well, since increasingly, the rovers are staying in one place for long periods of time, and images often overlap. So now, panoramas and slideshows are organized by "time intervals".

In the "Viewer Settings" there is a new "Time intervals" section with controls for how panoramas and slideshows are split up. The options are:

- "Split by location": Images are grouped by rover location.
- "Split by sol": Images are grouped by sol (day)
- "Split by elapse minutes": Images are grouped by time interval. A new time interval is created if there are more than X minutes between images.



Another change is that the "Images" view now shows images from the currently viewed time interval only. The selected time interval is displayed at the top of the view.



So for example, take Spirit's "McMurdo" pan, which was split over two different rover locations (technically; actually the rover did not move). You can use the new controls to browse, in panorama mode, each day's images separately. Or, you can view the images from each location separately. Or, you can now (for the first time in MMB) view the entire panorama, including both locations at once - by specifying the start sol (809) and the end sol (1009), and turning off all the "split by" options. Here's a view:



As usual, you can get the latest version by using the Update Software feature. If you update, you may see an "unable to restore all workbench views" dialog the first time you start up. This is because the Locations view no longer exists; just click "ok" and open the Time Intervals view using the Windows menu.

Yeah!

What a great idea: Spirit and Opportunity '08!!! At last, a ticket I
can really get behind.

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2007/10/example-of-good-return-on-govt-money.html

Sent from my iPhone

September 30 Planetary Society Mars Rover Update

Another great rover update by A.J.S Rayl at the Planetary Society:

http://www.planetary.org/news/

2007/0930_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html

Highlights: Teams hopes to have Spirit winter at Von Braun/Goddard
after investigating Home Plate. Opportunity will be at her present
location for some weeks, investigating the top of the bright layer
inside Victoria Crater. The bright layer actually has three distinct
layers, which will be named after influential sedimentologists and
stratigraphers, the top layer being named 'Steno'.

Movie - Opportunity Enters Victoria Crater

Version 2.0 Development Release 8

With the unofficial end of summer, comes the unofficial resumption of work on Midnight Mars Browser. My hope is to slowly add some more "polish" to the application, and finally get to an official "2.0" release.

Dev version 8 is a small step in that direction. I've upgraded the framework to Eclipse 3.3, which buys us a few nice features. In particular the popup views are very useful, once you've figured out how to use them.

I've also added some icons for the views. Right now these icons are "borrowed" from Eclipse and unmannedspaceflight.com; I'll have to work on making some proper icons later.

Unfortunately the Update Software feature doesn't seem to be working for some reason, so if you want this one, you'll need to download it from here.

Version 2.0 Development Release 7

I've posted the latest and greatest... If you are already using MMB 2.0 dev5 or later, you can just choose Help -> Update Software (be sure to let it run... it should have a progress indicator but does not yet). Otherwise, here.

Important note: You will need to update to this latest version for the panorama feature to work correctly. This is because the metadata has changed to support the latest features (namely, the rover motion counter 'overflow' issue is finally fixed for panorama mode - you're welcome).

A lot of work went into streamlining the panorama feature in this release. I think it now officially kicks the stuffing out of 1.x's panorama feature.

Finally: there are literally dozens of items left on the To-Do List, but work on it will probably slow down considerably over the summer.

Movies Gone

I had to take down the movies, as they were using up too much bandwidth.