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Nasa joins 21st century

Whiteboards out blue boards in...

By Joey Gardiner

Published: 5 June 2002 17:20 BST

US space agency Nasa is using IBM technology to bring its scientists into the 21st century and banish the marker pen and flip chart to the annals of history.

IBM has developed extra large touch-screen displays for the Nasa scientists to use when trying to interpret data passed back from the next Mars mission.

The boards will replace flip charts used by the scientists to record and share all the information gleaned by scientists from one shift to the next.

One scientist said the new technology built by IBM was designed to be easy to use, meaning the scientists could concentrate fully on the job in hand.

The plasma screens - called MERBoards will be used to support the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover mission.

The MERBoards will incorporate a web browser and will allow scientist to view a range of information, as well as sketching and making annotations.

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