14 DAY TRIAL // The Mountain View company Google seems to be focused more and more on earth and space exploration as it continuously improves the mapping technologies with new and innovative functions. Today Google officially rolls out a new version of Moon, a product which is similar with Earth but with a different goal: it provides high-resolution moon imagery bundled with 360-degree panoramas showing the astronauts and their missions. Google Moon is the third technology which brings space exploration straight on your desktop after Google Mars and Sky in Google Earth.
"We've released a new version of Google Moon, one that fully eclipses its predecessor. This update brings higher-resolution map imagery, text search, and photos and stories from every Apollo landing. We even included Street View-style panoramas of the moon's surface, taken by the Apollo astronauts ... something you won't see anywhere else. And last but certainly not least, we tossed in scientific charts that are good enough for actual mission planning and science classrooms alike. Check out the about page for more info on all of these features," Michael Weiss-Malik, Software Engineer, wrote on the official blog of the Mountain View company.
Obviously, the team working at the Googleplex received the help of NASA, the organization which always tried to find more information about the space.
As far as I can see, Google Moon is an excellent source of information about the moon landings because it serves several pop-ups showing details every time you click on a landmark. Moreover, it provides numerous images powered by NASA which allow you to analyze the moon's surface.
But the most amazing update is represented by the panoramas which are based on the same 'Street View' function, enabling you to zoom in or out and even rotate the image to explore a certain region of the moon.
