Google and NASA plot Google Space

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 19 Dec 2006 at 10:36

A virtual flight over the surface of the moon - and even an exploration of the canyons of Mars - are in prospect for Web surfers. This is thanks to a deal announced between Google and the NASA Ames Research Centre.

'This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars,' said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin at Headquarters in Washington. 'This innovative combination of information technology and space science will make NASA's space exploration work accessible to everyone.'

The Space Act Agreement is the first in a series of collaborations between the Mountain View, California-based Internet company and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA and Google said they will work together on a wide range of technical problems and will make NASA's space exploration work, much of which is currently scattered across the Web, more accessible to the public.

One project would let viewers see details of Mars and Earth's moon in a format similar to satellite picture views of the world made popular by applications such as Google Earth.

Eventually, they aim to offer real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle from the screen of any computer with Internet access, they said in a statement.

Google and NASA first partnered last year to build a new campus at NASA's research centre in Silicon Valley. The deal called for Google to develop up to 1 million square feet (93,000 square metre) of real estate within the Moffett Field research park.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.