Under the Dome: Challenges and Opportunities

Facilitator: Ryan Wyatt

Scribe: Edna DeVore

The Pros are here at the meeting: Most pre-rendered images have been created by people in this group: lots of talent here. Real-time rendering is a key activity, and the work at the Rose is very impressive (Steve Savage).

Why are non-dome people here?

+ the planetarium/dome community is an effective existing network for disseminating NASA activities and events (Rob)

+ immersive environments: here to explore these as an opportunity for PAO/ new releases (Walt)

+ interested in immersive environments in general (Michael)

+ challenge: using the dome to look at surfaces, e.g. Mars--domes are the sky. Comments: we have techniques to make such displays.

+ coming from the 2-d world (TV), and intrigued by the potential for the domed environment; great tool for telling stories

What distinguishes the domed environment from other spaces?

+ system that one wears is different

+ very unique experience

+ digital controls allow for multiple subjects for content

+ interactive programming possible as well

Digital vs. non-digital theaters?

+ 95% of the non-digital theater people are terrified: the roadmap ahead in not clear? (Steve Savage)

+ technical challenges: set-up and maintenance of equipment is a reality (Donna Cox)

+ personnel: number of people needed to proportional to the size of the dome, and digital domes require different skill sets to sustain the technology (Donna Cox)

+ professional preparation: planetarium directors are hired on the basis of astronomical and educational preparation, yet in the digital domes, the background required is more akin to television production, audiovisual production (Don Davis)

+ small domes: staff is small and time stressed. The small dome (school, small museum) requires turn-key programming (Mark-Loch Ness)

Opportunities: What does NASA need to do?

+ NASA needs to be immersed in the planetarium community to learn more about the opportunities available through planetaria. "It's not your Mom and Dad's planetarium anymore." NASA needs to overcome the challenge that decision makers all visited a planetarium when they were in 4th grade and haven't been back. "Been there, done that." needs to be challenged.

+ NASA should consider bringing in planetarium-experienced personnel into the EPO and PAO offices

+ Future opportunities: planetaria have the opportunity to develop a whole new audience.

Challenges:

+ We filled the dome with stars, images and motion. Now we need to create great stories now--we're on a learning curve here.

+ How can we take advantage of the domed environment differently? (More than space travel, and such).

+ How can we transfer data and expertise?

+ How can we obtain the time of scientists and science ops. groups necessary to make the data accessible? It's a practical issue: time, personnel and dollars at the first level. Often the data has been reviewed by scientists, but it's not readily accessible to non-scientists.

+ Institutional inertia: NASA is not accustomed to outsiders having the tools to process data. Example: with the Huygens images, the panoramas where first released by "amateurs" who stitched together single frames.

+ creating DB of other worlds: reference to 'World Wind" (the model of the Earth). NASA ARC has released a low-res Mars version--can the higher res version be mapped into this (Savage)? What about a similar product for the upcoming Moon data?

+ With the new technology, domes can present amazing amounts of scientific information. Issue: requires time and tools to translate into products that are accessible to planetaria?

+ How will NASA sustain this in 5 to 10 years? How can this be a sustained effort? Suggestion: have a technical agent on each "campus" (center) to broker the outside world needs to the inside world of scientists and their data.

+ Recommendation: Have an agent/person at each NASA Center whose task is to identify, broker, facilitate the scientific and technical discoveries at that center. John Stoke serves this function at STScI for Hubble; clone John to the other centers.

+ Issue: provide proper credit and appropriate timely release of information. Scientists need to control the release of information in coordination with press conferences and publication.

+ Issue: provide appropriate credit for the contribution of individuals and institutions that promote space science and astronomy for NASA.

+ Change the mindset of NASA: the planetaria are the foot soldiers for dissemination of NASA information.

+ Data driven programs: are we going to produce programs driven around data, or are we going to produce programs that meet the interests and needs of our audiences?

+ The planetarium is a current events outlet for astronomy and space science.

+ The planetarium is also the basics and good stories.

+ There are 150 (?) Explorer schools are the focus of the Education Division. This reaches very few people in the country. Recommendation: re-direct this funding into the planetarium community. NASA is not focusing on the very many school planetaria that provide a ready-made group of educators to bring astronomy and space sciences to children across the country.

+ Context: we have a responsibility to present information in a context. The Cosmic Atlas at Denver is a balancing act: the merger of data sets vs. production house items will slowly build an up-to-date atlas from the larger DB that are available.

+ The Planetarium has multiple roles as a classroom and a theater. This creates an intrinsic pressure to drive the content.

+ Formatting: it's an issue to create programs and data in different formats. We need tools for this sort of repurposing. We need to have the data sets in an accessible format.

+ Real data: We have an opportunity to show to "real stuff". It's an opportunity because of the fidelity and excitement of using real data.

+ IPS Standards Committee: dancing around this issue. This is a very big issue. The data visualizers spend considerable effort accessing and reworking the data. NASA Issue: How is data archived and sustained when missions are completed?

This group needs to see itself as a stake-holder, rather than a group of competitors.

Consider: adopt a scientist--create a relationship with a planetarium staff member. Issue: there are more than 1700 planetaria in the USA--are the relationships only with the big dome?