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Monday May 11, 2009
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Want a first-hand, three-dimensional look at NASA's International Space Station? NASA has unveiled an interactive, 3-D photographic collection of internal and external views of the ISS, plus a model of the next Mars rover, according to PhysOrg.com. NASA developed the interactive tours in tandem with the Microsoft Virtual Earth team, using hundreds of photographs along with Microsoft's Photosynth photo imaging technology.
"The space station pictures are not simulations or graphic representations but actual images taken recently by astronauts while in orbit," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in the article. "Although you're not flying 220 miles above the Earth at 17,500 miles an hour, it allows you to navigate and view amazing details of the real station as though you were there."
Meanwhile, the Mars rover imagery offers a preview of
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, which is scheduled to launch in 2011. View NASA's Photosynth collection at http://www.nasa.gov/photosynth or on Microsoft's Virtual Earth Web site at: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth. (Unfortunately, it requires a Microsoft Silverlight install, but it's well worth it.) NASA also created a scavenger hunt to go with the imagery, including objects like a space suit and a station crew patch; the agency will be posting clues on Facebook and Twitter. More info on the scavenger hunt can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate.
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