NASA + Google: What’s in it for me?

I guess this is something of an obligatory post, so, for the record, here is what’s coming:

Google will also gain access to NASA’s space data and imagery. Google already uses satellite imagery in its Google Maps service and for its Google Earth software. Google could enhance the imagery with data about temperatures or crop patterns, said Peter Norvig, director of search quality at Google.

The company is also interested in extending its mapping prowess to outer space, he said.

“We already have Google Earth,” Norvig said. “We’d like to have Google Mars and Google Moon.”

“I didn’t realize how much content and information was trapped in the accumulated history of these organizations,” Schmidt said. “Imagine if our supercomputing power can be applied to the problem.”

What more could I want? All of it, all of NASA’s spatial data — from the missions to Mercury, to Mars, to Jupiter and Saturn’s moons, with different instruments’ readings existing as different layers. And above all I want a comprehensive zoomable atlas of the stars containing Hubble telescope close-ups, much like how National Geographic does Africa in Google Earth now. And a pony.

3 thoughts on “NASA + Google: What’s in it for me?”

  1. Google and NASA

    The big news this week for Google watchers this week is the announcement Wednesday of a memorandum of understanding between Google and NASA’s Ames Research Center. Press releases from ARC and Google; news coverage from the San Jose Mercury (reprinted…

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