Tour the lunar landing — in Google Street View
| July 20, 2009 | 11:40 AM
More journal entries from Cindy House »
A panorama view of the Apollo 11 moon landing offered on Google Earth.
As part of Monday’s moon mania, Google is now offering maps of the lunar surface through its Google Earth software.
And it’s not just maps — the moon package also provides interactive elements such as videos from the Apollo landings, descriptions of their missions, panorama views — akin to Google Street View — and tours of landing sites narrated by the astronauts.
Moon in Google Earth (the official name for the map package) was developed in collaboration with NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA
The screen shot above shows part of one of the 360-degree panorama views of the Apollo 11 landing site. Three other panoramas are available for Apollo 11, along with four videos and 10 photos that include facts about the mission. My favorite is Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin struggling with the core sampler in the dense lunar soil: “I hope you’re watching how hard I have to hit this into the ground, to the tune of about five inches, Houston.”
apollo 11, buzz aldrin, google earth, moon
