Hahaha, that was a busy weekend when this launched in like 2005-2006. I was one of the sysadmins of the website with the THEMIS images. Google promoted it directly below the search box. Which made my web servers 3 clicks away from Google’s front page. I spent the weekend cannibalizing compute nodes from one of our clusters to work as caching proxies. It all worked out pretty well.
Google Mars (2005)
41–50 of 87 posts
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#42Always wanted this
I want to select A on Earth and B on Mars, then click "Directions".
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#43Search located Pathfinder without problems[0]. But not the Ares III landing site[1]...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Pathfinder [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(film)
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#44Hahaha, that was a busy weekend when this launched in like 2005-2006. I was one of the sysadmins of the website with the THEMIS images. Google promoted it directly below the search box. Which made my web servers 3 clicks away from Google’s front page. I spent the weekend cannibalizing compute nodes from one of our clusters to work as caching proxies. It all worked out pretty well.
[deleted]
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#45https://www.google.com/sky/ https://www.google.com/moon/
Mars is also built in to Google Maps now: https://www.google.com/maps/space/mars/
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#46I've always been really disapointed that google let their planetary maps stagnate.
I work (~5% of my work week) on https://trek.nasa.gov/ . Our front page sucks, but the individual map browsers are quite rich in terms of available layers and tools. Our UI is... not optimized for discoverability, but there's a lot there. Mars is at https://trek.nasa.gov/mars/
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#47Hahaha, that was a busy weekend when this launched in like 2005-2006. I was one of the sysadmins of the website with the THEMIS images. Google promoted it directly below the search box. Which made my web servers 3 clicks away from Google’s front page. I spent the weekend cannibalizing compute nodes from one of our clusters to work as caching proxies. It all worked out pretty well.
Very cool, thanks for sharing. It's fascinating to me that google has put so little effort into their planetary maps since an inital burst of interest, but hasn't killed them yet. Is it just "below the radar"? I guess I assumed they would have some management process that kills zombie projects... don't they?
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#48I miss the days when I'd see a HN post to a Google project and be excited to check it out. I don't necessarily fault Google--they have to do what makes sense for their business. But I wish, at the very least from a PR perspective, more companies would create cool things without worrying about whether they can be monetized.
I do miss it too. What is the point in having so much money if you can't do exciting, useful, and cool stuff.
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#49Here's another 3D Mars surface explorer: https://murray-lab.caltech.edu/CTX/V01/SceneView/MurrayLabCT... Edit: Searching through my notes, I realised I've been down this rabbit hole before. Here are some more of the same: https://explore-mars.esri.com/ http://www.mars3dmap.com https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/24881/planet-mars-3d-model/
don't forget Eyes on the Solar System, WorldWind, Cosmographia, JMars, and USGS PILOT
Re: Google Mars (2005)
#50If the visible map here is gray, why is it red-ish in the sky looking at it with the naked eye?