Cornell grad Dan Maas creates Deep Impact animation for NASA

June 21, 2005

Contact: Lauren Gold
Phone: (607) 255-9736
E-mail: lg34@cornell.edu

Media Contact: Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Phone: (607) 254-8093
E-mail: bpf2@cornell.edu

ITHACA, N.Y. -- No one really knows what will happen when a probe
from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft collides with the comet Tempel 1
in the early morning hours of July 4. But if anyone can picture the
spacecraft's journey from its Cape Canaveral launch in January to its
possibly brilliant demise, it is Cornell University alumnus Dan Maas
'02.

Thanks to meticulous research and hours of conversations with mission
engineers and scientists, Maas can envision every detail -- from the
precise structure of the spacecraft to the celestial bodies its
cameras will capture along the way.

Maas' creativity and skill have resulted in two Deep Impact
animations for NASA and its Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The animations
-- one short and one long -- are available at
.

Maas, founder of Maas Digital in Ithaca, was hired to create the
computerized animations on the strength of the widely heralded videos
he developed for NASA's Mars rover missions. But Deep Impact came
with a new set of challenges, he said.

"Aside from the launch it was quite different," Maas said. "On Mars,
you're dealing with a terrestrial landscape setting. Deep Impact
spends 99 percent of its life just floating out there in
interplanetary space. It's hard to give a good sense of motion
because the distances are so great."

He solved the problem by shifting camera angles and speeding up the
timeline. But aside from the quicker pace, the animation is true to
the mission.

Maas, who entered Cornell at 16, has been making films and animations
since elementary school. At Cornell he was a College Scholar, which
allowed him to set his own curriculum, and he took courses mainly in
math, physics and theater arts. He launched Digital Cinema -- the
precursor to Maas Digital -- at 16 and interned with an animation
studio in Los Angeles at 17. But his animation techniques are mostly
self-taught. About half of Maas' work is now for NASA. The other half
is for aerospace companies.

As far as what actually will happen in the moments after Deep
Impact's probe barrels into Tempel 1 on July Fourth … chances
are, Maas will be watching the NASA images at the Space Sciences
Building with the same sense of anticipation as the mission planners.

"I'm a space nut. I have been since I was very young," he said. "I
will try my best to be there."

Related World Wide Web sites:

Deep Impact animation (NASA):

Maas Digital:

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The web version of this story, with accompanying photos, is available
at http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June05/DanMaas.lxg.html
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