SDSS, Mars

[joejoejam]

hi all

how long has it been since the SDSS server has been not working?
and how about the Mars server?
i know ya'll will tell me/us that 'they' are working on it.
but can you tell me who 'they' are and why 'they' don't answer the question themselves---when --- will the SDSS and the Mars be back?

it has been to the best of my reckoning a few months for the mars server, and several or more like a year for the SDSS except for a short period last fall.

i see no reason to open Nasa WorldWind or even turn on my computer, i can see more thru my binoculars in my back yard.

[m_k]

Use Google Earth - there's SDSS and Mars - more data, better resolution, easier to use, their servers are much faster and have 100% uptime...

[bull]

m_k are you sure you are on the correct forum :P

[m_k]

Absolutely... and I wasn't joking

Sure, I wish I could say that WW is better than GE, that it had Mars, stars, bathymetry and the other stuff years before GE, but I can't... Where's Mars and SDSS in WW *now*? I would like to know the answer too.
("We don't care about WW anymore, go away"-kind of an answer would be better than saying "someone is working on it" just to get rid of unpatient users asking about broken servers.)

I guess I'm not a WW fanboi :P

[bull]

I do agree .NET seems to be being neglected by NASA, Java is where the money is, but things can change, also as a community we could do more, for example hosting the Mars data, but even FEF don't seem too interested in WW anymore, it's left to me and T_Servo to push for everything WW related.

I guess I could just give up on WW too, but I still feel it's needed and enjoy supporting the many users who are still out there.

[patmurris]

This is not about WW.net vs WWJ - they use the same Mars data, and WWJ doesn't have a SDSS layer yet. Right now it is about getting better imagery for Earth, and limited resources to keep Mars online i think. SDSS comes from a university, but the person who handled the servers moved to another university... It is supposed to come back online at some point but i've no idea when.

[MouseOnMars]

In my opinion this situation has a lot to do with the previous political mentality that we have just come out of. Things were skewing towards the big money NASA/Google deal at the expense of carefully orchestrated open source efforts by NASA.

Why did NASA suddenly go onto WWJ in a way that makes it seem like it is dumping a lot of talent and good code ? Why was the bug tracker deleted ? Why did it seem that WW was "dying" ?

Some very bad decisions have been made in my opinion. But these things happen, and those decisions were made in a very bad atmosphere. That is now changing with Obama coming into power (no Obama won't do everything for us !).

So I can see a lot of potential for WW .Net. WWJ makes sense in terms of it's modular nature and things like webstart downloads. But .Net is similar to Java in some ways ... should NASA have really funded more development on Mono and carried on with WW .Net ? Maybe. Anyway, no matter. WW has a valuable code base and a good community.

m k .. although I appreciate your frustration ... how do you know that "no one cares" ? I, for one, have had personal problems to deal with ... but it was a relief to find WW still here when I resurfaced ! Things ebb and flow ... go with the flow ?

[TomServo]

Really though... if you want SDSS that bad.. I would say use the best app out there for it, World Wide Telescope.

[MouseOnMars]

Or even better, get the old Telescope set up in the back garden, eh ?

[TomServo]

True... but right now it gets "Testicle Freezing Cold" at night though.

And hard to see the sky in the southern hemisphere

[joejoejam]

when i use google earth,sky etc. it works.
when i use world wide telescope, it works as well as my meager computer will let it.
when i use Nasa World Wind, only part of it works, the parts i would be using don't.
and it seems to be that every software program in the world gets fixed in a day, if it is not working correctly.
sure it must be politics. what a nasty word.

[bull]

It's all about the money I guess, why should .gov and universities get funding when anyone can see the data for 'free' in MS or Googles software? Politicians don't understand that the data being shown is not truly free, there are always EULA's or ToS, and by not funding in house as such all this data is controlled by big companies, who can switch off access at any point, and in the current economic climate if something isn't making a profit it dies pretty quickly.

[MouseOnMars]

A NASA employee put me straight on this.

NASA / PDS were approached by Google to request planetary data. Naturally NASA (Ames Planetary Content Team) helped them out.

All it would take is FEF, or Worldwind developers to approach NASA *in the same way that Google did* to request open data be released in the form of WMS severs as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium ...

... and they will do it.

[joejoejam]

MouseOnMars im not sure what all that translates into

does it mean that the SDSS servers and the Mars server will be working tomorrow?

[MouseOnMars]

I was replying to the comments about WW being "forgotten", not specifically the SDSS / Mars issue.