WASHINGTON—Rodney Grubbs, NASA Imagery Experts Program Manager, will present “More and Better Pixels, How NASA Plans to use HDR, 4K, VR and Other Technologies to Take Everyone Along for the Ride to Mars” at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Government Video Expo at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
Grubbs will discuss how NASA is currently developing plans for human exploration of Mars by the 2030’s. Between now and then, excursions to the Moon and asteroids will provide opportunities to test all the technologies needed for Mars missions. Motion imaging will be crucial to these missions to provide situational awareness, document system performance and share the adventure with the public. The development of High Dynamic Range, cameras with 4K and higher spatial resolution, and Virtual Reality cameras and viewing technologies are all relevant for supporting these NASA missions. Grubbs will present recent VR footage from Mars as well as programming from the NASA’s new UHD Channel and take questions from the audience.
“In the 60’s NASA had to create the technology that took us to the Moon and provided the iconic imagery that allowed us to all experience it live,” Grubbs said. “Our next journeys beyond low Earth orbit will utilize commercial technologies being developed now or on the technology road maps of companies and start-ups.”
Erisa Hines, a driver for the Mars Curiosity rover, based at JPL, talks to participants in "Destination: Mars." (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Microsoft)
As NASA’s Imagery Experts Program Manager, Grubbs is responsible for NASA’s imaging architecture to science, human spaceflight, and public outreach. Grubbs is also chairman of the NASA DTV Working Group and has been a principal investigator for flights of HDTV cameras and related experiments on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, including the first-ever live HDTV program from a spacecraft and first digital cinema camera flown in space. Grubbs chairs the Consultative Committee for Space Data Standards Motion Imagery and Applications Working Group to set standards for video interoperability with other space-faring nations. Grubbs recently led the development of images.nasa.gov, allowing the public to search over 60 NASA imagery collections via a single on-line library.
The Government Video Expo will take place Dec. 6–8, 2016 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Designed for video, broadcast and AV professionals, Government Video Expo features a full exhibit floor, numerous training options, free seminars, keynotes, panel discussions, networking opportunities, and a new educational series of panel discussions.
For more information, visit www.gvexpo.com.
