GSoC/GCI Archive
Google Code-in 2011 KDE

Edit task - Create a new "Historic Lowell Mars Map" map theme for Marble

completed by: Gábor Péterffy

mentors: Torsten Rahn, Earthwings

Marble features a lot of historic maps from the age of discoveries, such as the Schagen map, see: World Map Schagen 1689 as an example.

But of course there are also old maps from other planets: Have a look at this website from our friends at the celestia project:

http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/gallery-002.html#4

This task is about creating a nice historic map based on Percival Lowell's map given above:

http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/plmars-texture-v3.jpg

We suggest that you take the normal Marble Mars map as a template:

http://files.kde.org/marble/newstuff/maps/mars-marblemap.zip

Have a look at the dgml file which is included (using a text editor) and change the strings inside as needed. This tutorial explains what the tags are about:

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Marble/CustomMaps

You can also have a peek at our Historical Maps Tutorial which also covers creation of maps from Stereographic projection (you can skip that part since the maps are provided in the required Equirectangular projection already).

The new map needs to have a legend included (like the other historical and planetary maps - you can use the existing ones as a template).

While creating the map there are a few things that you should keep in mind:

  • The features in the map / the grid should align with the "normal" (viking) Mars map. Look for feature "233" on the Lowell map. You can also look it up in Marble using the Search query - you'll find it at 70°E and 10°N there (in both cases it's the dark slightly triangular patch).
  • The historic map should display the surface features (like craters, landing sites, etc.) just like the "normal" Viking map does.
  • Make sure you provide a nice legend. Possibly with a few words about Percival Lowell's thoughts about the Mars channels and a link to Wikipedia.

Please also add the colorful version as well as a second layer that can be turned off and on in the legend. It's quite simple to add: Have a look at the dgml source code of the Hike and Bike map which makes use of different layers:

http://files.kde.org/marble/newstuff/maps/hikebikemap-marblemap.zip

If you need help, just ask us.


Expected results: A new historical Percival Lowell Mars map ready for upload to the GHNS server.
Prerequisites: Knowledge of editing xml files, Basic knowledge of Krita, Gimp or Photoshop for creation of the map key