San Diego Space Society

Google Mars

Posted by Chris Radcliff in News on February 2, 2009

No, it’s not another hoax space program like Virgle.  It’s an update to the already-awesome Google Earth, which combines all sorts of digital imagery into a navigable 3D globe. The team had added star charts (Google Sky) to a previous edition, and there were inklings of a partnership with NASA to visualize the Moon or Mars as a way to share NASA imagery more easily.

Well, now it’s here. The new Google Earth 5.0 (in beta) adds a full-3D, terrain-mapped Mars simulation. I’ve just downloaded the update, but if the screenshots on the Google Earth blog are any indication it’s going to be indispensable for designing and communicating Mars exploration concepts.

Picture it this way: you have a new idea for a Mars habitat, and you want to include it in a presentation. You could just download Google SketchUp, draft up a 3D sketch of the idea, and use Sketchup to place it in Google Earth (on Mars, of course) and export images or video. Done! Best of all, both programs come in absolutely-free versions.