Google To Weave NASA Data Archives into Online Applications
Taxpayers -- and everyone else -- soon will be able to “Google” whatever NASA is up to. A memo of understanding announced Mon. means “unbelievable data” from NASA missions will fuel Google Earth and other services so the public can “feel the excitement of space travel” virtually, NASA Ames Research Center Dir. Pete Wharton said in a conference call.
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“So many people go to Google for information, it wouldn’t be in the best interests of the nation to not collaborate with them,” said Chris Kemp, strategic relationships dir.-NASA Ames, which is a few miles from Google hq. No money is changing hands: “NASA employees have worked on this and Google has reimbursed” the agency for their time, Wharton said. The company hasn’t put a specific number of employees on the project, but already “a number of them are acting with” NASA staff, said Google Engineering Dir. Daniel Clancy: “We hope that more people at Google will talk to more smart people at NASA.”
The Google agreement isn’t exclusive, and NASA is “trying to get data out to as many channels as we can,” Wharton said. Each side gets something, Kemp said: “We're not giving data to Google per se. We're telling stories with that data using some of Google’s services.” NASA is “pretty far along” in talks with “about 50” other private organizations on projects “from rocket engines to computer software,” Wharton said.
Google and NASA already have produced detailed scientific maps of Mars -- google.com/mars. Coming services could work Mars images directly into Google Earth. NASA images also fuel Google Moon, where “users could one day see where Apollo landed on the moon” while viewing mineral layers, soil content statistics or even current temperatures, Wharton said. People will “feel the crunch of Martian soil underneath their feet,” he said: Some of the applications feel like “Star Trek.”
Global Connection, a collaboration of Carnegie Mellon U., NASA, Google and National Geographic magazine, is developing “spatial image browsing applications” to “overlay new image content for disaster relief support and National Geographic content.” Another venture, Gigapan, blends robotic panoramic camera capability with spatial browsing to “allow everyday users to capture and dynamically explore high resolution images” the project site said. “We expect to make this very, very open so as we come out with new products, new developments I would think you would see updates every few months,” Kemp said. -- Alexis Fabbri
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Google bought Swiss mapping company Endoxon’s Internet, mapping and data processing business units. The acquisition will “bring a distinctly European focus” to Google Maps in the region, the company said.