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MINERVA: Mars INteractive Exploration based on Reconstruction and Visual Analysis

MINERVA is an integrated framework for planetary scientists allowing members of different instrument teams to cooperate synergistically in virtual workspaces by sharing observations, analyses and annotations of heterogonous mission data.

Bild des Dashboards des Minerva Prototyps
A dashboard from the MINERVA prototype. The MINERVA prototype consists of three tightly integrated components: a data base for scientific data products that also maintains analysis results, a 3D visualization engine and a non-spatial visualization component.
Bild einer 3D Simulation mit einem Computerprogramm
Pro3D: As part of the planned 3D GIS functionality, pins show measurement positions of different instruments in the 3D reconstruction of Cape Desire at the Victoria Crater. Blue ones indicate spectra and red ones radar data. A preview of one spectrum is shown as billboard. The yellow and green lines are part of a geological interpretation. Data courtesy USGS/NASA/JPL/Caltech/ASU
Bild des Dashboards des Minerva Prototyps
Bild einer 3D Simulation mit einem Computerprogramm

The ExoMars 2020 mission will provide a heterogeneous set of data from different instruments captured on the surface of Mars. It encompasses different types of imagery, various spectra, ground-penetrating radar observations, and lab examinations of samples. The goal of MINERVA is to provide planetary scientists with an integrated framework that supports a comprehensive, holistic and efficient analysis of this wealth of heterogeneous science data. New interactive visualization methods considering semantics, meta-information and data modalities are investigated. The tight interoperation of a 3D explorer with GIS functionality and a visual analytics component will allow insights, which would be hard or impossible to obtain using isolated methods. For more information visit the official website.

Components

The MINERVA prototype consists of three tightly integrated components:

  1. 1. A database for scientific data products that also maintains analysis results.
  2. 2. A 3D Visualization Engine (PRo3D, Figure 2) to explore surface reconstructions and make extensive geological/morphologic interpretations using a variety of interactive measurement tools. PRo3D also offers important GIS functionalities such as orthographic view, superimposed rover tracks and data locations.
  3. 3. A non-spatial visualization component for in-depth investigation of data, to discover relations, properties and coherencies otherwise hidden.

Contact

Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Christoph Traxler

Area Coordinator Smart Worlds & Head of GeoSMAQ, Geospatial Visualization, Semantic Modelling, and Acquisition Group

traxler(at)vrvis.at +43 1 908 98 92 520

Project Details

Start: 07.2018

End Date: 12.2019

Partners

Joanneum, EOX

Funded by

FFG ASAP

Use Cases

MINERVA offers the users the opportunity to visualize, analyze, and annotate the mission data in a spatiotemporal context that also considers interrelations:

  • Support scientists in geo-referencing of scientific products (e.g. spectra) for the characterization of regions and the identification of their boundaries.
  • To enable a holistic overview of products, their correlations and their distribution by time, rover orientation, etc.
  • Measure/annotate on 3D surfaces with PRo3D and share this with peers
  • Search for spatial and temporal correlations in laboratory instruments data (spectrometers etc.).
  • Get geospatial overviews of products’ locations having certain characteristics (e.g., a spectrum with a certain shape).
  • Simultaneous inspection of ensembles of spectra/images. This may include a characterization of the overall dispersion, a pairwise comparison of particular products, and the clustering of products by their characteristics (e.g., the shape of their spectrum).
  • Identify bidirectional relation of product locations to corresponding product characteristics, e.g. potentially non-contiguous regions where objects have certain characteristics.

Video Minerva

Watch this demo video on our YouTube channel to learn more about MINERVA.

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