Live From Mars 01 at CMS

Determining the Topography of an Unknown Surface: MOLA

Eighth grade students in Mr. McCollum's science classes modeled the laser mapping of the Martian surface done by an instrument on Mars Global Surveyor called MOLA ( Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter ). They created sections of simulated Martian terrain in empty shoe boxes using rocks, Styrofoam cups, cardboard, and masking tape. They then sealed the boxes and traded with those constructed by other students. Using a grid system of coordinates and metal rods calibrated in 1 cm units, they probed the boxes and were able to determine the topography of the hidden terrain. They then entered their MOLA data into the computer software program - NIH Image to render full color image maps and 3-D surface plots of the model terrain in each box. ( Lesson instructions )

Probing the box with the altimeter rod

Recording altimeter rod data

Entering data into NIH Image

Rendering image maps of data

Comparing shoe box terrain to image map

Discovering shoe box volcanoes

Sample student image map

Sample image map rendered as 3-D surface plot

MOLA Map (Credit NASA)

MOLA Vertical Plot (Credit NASA)
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