Google Moon

Google Moon and Google Mars are on display as part of an exhibit called "Design and the Elastic Mind."  Google’s Michael Weiss-Malik explains, "The exhibit showcases objects and systems that pair modern design with innovations in science and engineering in creative ways.  Google Moon’s Apollo landing panoramas and Google Mars’ imagery of the largest canyons and volcanoes in the solar system were intended to do exactly that, by applying Google Maps technology to places that are out of this world."

This still sounds a little odd, but then, a lot of things in the Museum of Modern Art probably look completely crazy.  In fact, Google Moon and Google Mars may be two of the most approachable things there; their presence might be the equivalent of a fancy restaurant’s gourmet hamburger.

Or not – art is more than a little outside our normal subject matter.  So we’ll just return to Weiss-Malik, who writes, "We’re delighted that MOMA saw fit to include us in their lineup, and recommend the show to anyone living in or visiting the New York area.  It runs through May 12th."

Congrats to everybody who worked on either piece of software.

Updates include new content from the Apollo missions, along with embedded panoramic images, links to audio clips and videos, and descriptions of the astronaut’s activities during the missions. The site also added detailed charts of different regions of the moon for use by anyone simulating a lunar mission.

"NASA’s objective is for Google Moon to become a more accurate and useful lunar mapping platform that will be a foundation for future web-based moon applications, much like the many applications that have been built on top of Google Maps," said Chris C. Kemp, director of strategic business development at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

"This will make it easier for scientists everywhere to make lunar data more available and accessible."

Last week Google announced it was working with the X Prize Foundation for the Google Lunar X Prize, a contest for private companies to land a privately funded robotic rover on the moon. The grand prize winner that completes mission objectives will receive $20 million.