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Liquid Galaxy now at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC
July 22, 2011
Thirty-five years ago this week, the
Viking 1
lander touched down on the surface of Mars, beginning an olympian mission of exploration lasting more than 6 years. Today, the
Liquid Galaxy
immersive Google Earth display lands at the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
in Washington, DC, in the “Moving Beyond Earth” exhibit.
Photo by Mark Avino, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
It’s part of the museum's annual
Mars Day!
event, where visitors can learn about the red planet, past and future missions to Mars, and talk to scientists active in Mars research. Adding to the excitement,
NASA has just announced
the location of the landing site for the next mission to Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory. In November,
this SUV-sized robot
will make the leap into space and is expected to land in Gale Crater, to look for signs that Mars might have once harbored life.
Designed during engineers’ 20% time
, Liquid Galaxy consists of several screens in a circular arrangement, all running Google Earth in parallel for an immersive virtual experience. Visitors can use the podium with touchscreen and a 3D mouse to navigate to an up-close and personal near-360-degree view of the landing site in Google Earth, as well as anywhere else on Mars, the Moon, and of course Earth.
Admission to the museum is free, so be sure to stop by the next time your travels take you to the capital of the United States. While you’re there, enjoy the largest collection of historic spacecraft and aircraft in the world, including a
proof test article
of the Viking Mars Lander. (Of course, the Viking 1 lander itself took a one-way trip!)
If you can’t make the trip to Washington or Mars yourself, you can always
explore the Martian surface
from the comfort of your own home using Google Earth, checking out the progress of the current crop of robot explorers, seeing the latest imagery from orbiting satellites or scouting out the Mars Science Laboratory’s future landing site for yourself.
Posted by Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer
Watch the lunar eclipse from anywhere
June 15, 2011
(Cross-posted on the
Official Google Blog
)
We’re always fascinated by the unique wonders of space and the world—what can we say, it’s the geek in us! Naturally, when we learned that part of the world will be treated to a rare 100-minute long total
lunar eclipse
starting at 11:20am PDT today, we were both excited and disappointed that this rare occasion wouldn’t be visible from our Mountain View campus like
last year’s eclipse
. We suspect we aren’t alone, so you’ll be glad to know that we’ve worked with Slooh Space Camera to let you experience the spectacle wherever you are in the world, in real time.
Slooh will host a live
mission interface
using Google App Engine that lets anyone not lucky enough to live in certain areas (South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia) take part in this rare astronomical event. It’s equipped with audio narrations from real-life astronomers so you can hear a firsthand, expert account of the event. You can also watch the live stream on the
Google YouTube Channel
or from the Sky layer in Google Earth (download
this kml
), while exploring the fascinating world that exists in our galaxy. Finally, those of you on the go can download the
Slooh Space Camera Android app
to view the images right on your phone.
If you're fortunate enough to be able to view this event in the sky, we hope you'll get the chance to step outside and indulge in the spectacle. For everyone else, we hope our
moon madness
helps brighten your day.
Update
11:37 PDT: Starting now, if you visit the
Google homepage
you’ll see a special interactive doodle, which will update throughout the day to show the latest state of the moon. Lunar imagery provided by Slooh.
Posted by Noel Gorelick, Chief Extraterrestrial Observer and Technical Lead in Special Projects
Exploring space with Google
May 16, 2011
Cross-posted from the
Google Students Blog
Update:
The live interview with the crew of the Endeavour will stream at 6 AM Eastern time on Thursday at
youtube.com/pbsnewshour
. That's 11 AM in London, 12 PM for much of Europe, and 3 AM on the West Coast of the United States. Don't worry, it'll be up soon after for later viewing.
At Google, we’re never afraid to think big, and our mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful doesn't stop at our exosphere. The universe is full of information, and as we push the boundaries of exploration, our job will be to organize it and make it searchable.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone out there that we have a passion for space. Google’s culture of innovation stems from our pioneering quest for knowledge; each one of us is empowered to think differently, break the limits, and take intelligent risks. Googlers are scientists, engineers, technologists, space enthusiasts; I have yet to meet a Googler who didn’t share the spirit of exploration.
In partnership with NASA, and PBS, YouTube and Google Moderator will
pose your questions
to the crew of STS-134, the final mission of the space Shuttle Endeavour, in a live interview emceed by stellar talent (another space joke!) Miles O'Brien.
To mark the occasion, we put together this video to celebrate our love for space, told with the help of products we pour our hearts into every day. You’ll see everything from historical sky maps featured in Google Earth, to 3D buildings at Kennedy Space Center, and our salute to both the astounding achievement of the Apollo era and the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a new space race of entrepreneurial leadership.
With our main campus less than a mile away from the NASA Ames Research Center, it seemed natural that our organizations should strike up a relationship and find ways to work together. Over the years, we have collaborated with our NASA colleagues on some amazing projects, and are very proud of the joint work and collaboration that have contributed to our space products, such as Moon and Mars in Google Earth. Most importantly, the longstanding friendship between our organizations means we can use our skills to complement each other, and bring people together around the globe. Literally. When we say around the globe, we mean....around the globe. With an altitude of roughly 200 miles, and orbiting at about 17,500 miles per hour! (I crack myself up with my space jokes.)
We hope you love the video as much as we do; it's our way of making space exploration open and accessible to everyone. Happy viewing, and keep exploring!
Posted by Tiffany Montague, Intergalactic Federation King Almighty and Commander of the Universe
Live from space: You talk to Commander Mark Kelly and the Endeavour Crew
April 27, 2011
(Cross-posted from the
YouTube Blog
)
UPDATE 4/29: NASA has scrubbed the launch attempt today due to a technical problem. We'll provide an update here on the live streamed launch and live interview, and you can follow NASA updates
here
.
We’ve always jumped at the chance to bring the wonders of space a little closer to home. We’ve announced a
Moon office
, a
Moon race
and an
expedition to Mars
and brought many nooks and crannies of the universe to Google Earth—
Sky
,
Moon
,
Mars
,
NASA images
and a
Hubble tour
, to name a few.
On Friday, April 29, the crew of
STS-134
will launch into space for the final mission of Space Shuttle Endeavour and we want to give you the chance to connect with them. On May 2, NASA Commander Mark Kelly and his crew will take your questions live from space on YouTube.
PBS NewsHour
will live stream the interview from its YouTube channel with veteran space reporter
Miles O’Brien
curating and asking your questions to the crew.
Starting today, you can visit
www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour
to submit a video or written question for the crew of STS-134 to be used in the live interview and vote for your favorite questions. You can also submit questions on Twitter with the hashtag #utalk2nasa. Don’t be shy—if you’re most curious about how to prepare for a spacewalk or wondering if the astronauts have a speech prepared for an extra-terrestrial encounter, this is your chance to find out. Here’s a video from PBS and Miles O’Brien to inspire you:
A few suggestions before submitting your questions:
Video questions are preferred, and should be a max of 20 seconds long
Speak clearly and film in a place with minimal background noise. Keep the camera as still as possible and ask the question directly to the camera
Look through NASA
videos
on
YouTube
about STS-134 to learn more about the mission and crew
You have until Saturday April 30 at midnight ET to submit your questions. The top ranked questions will be used in the live interview on Monday, May 2 at 2:15pm ET / 11:15am PT.
To get the full experience of STS-134, you can also watch a live stream of the shuttle launch on Friday April 29 starting at 3:47pm ET at
www.youtube.com/pbsnewshour
. Both the launch and the interview will be available for archived viewing.
Houston, we’re ready for lift-off.
Posted by Ginny Hunt, Public Sector Program Manager
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