Google Earth KML

Download this KML file to explore the Google Lunar X PRIZE teams, foundation, and preferred partners in Google Earth. Fly to each of the teams' headquarters, or check out the SETI Allen Telescope Array. New locations and teams will be added as they come along, and will be dynamically updated within Google Earth. To view this KML you will need Google Earth installed.

Click to download Google Lunar X PRIZE KML file

Rocket Garden Visualizer

Input an address of interest below, such as a home address, and you will be able to see just how large rockets are in relation to your address! We have modeled the Orion CEV, Saturn V, and Space Shuttle in 3D. To view these models, you will need to have Google Earth installed.

Enter your Address:

Sample of the program - the rockets on the Las Vegas Strip:

Scale of Solar System

Understand the vastness of our solar system... on a down-to-Earth scale. Enter an address below, and we will show you the relative scale of the solar system if the Earth were the size of a basketball
and the Sun was located on your address.

Screenshot of the interface:

Add this functionality to Google Maps as a Mapplet

Apollo Field Trip

Take A Field Trip to Apollo using Google Moon

A great new feature called Google Moon makes it possible for you, your students or your children to visit the Apollo lunar landing sites and get a first hand look at what the astronauts saw during their famous visits. This new tool contains links to photographs, spectacular panoramas that you can control, videos and transcripts of the discussions between the astronauts and mission control. This transcripts, compiled by Erik Jones, creator of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, includes astronaut commentaries about what was going on during the conversations. There are also many great video segments of moon landings, moon launchings and the astronauts working on the lunar surface.

Each site deserves a visit, but we will select one sample site, visit it, and discuss some of the highlights of our journey.

Moon View From Space
Starting with the top level view of Google Moon, we see a rectangular Mercator Projection of the lunar surface. Mapmakers are faced with the eternal problem of how to make a flat representation of a spherical body. You can have fun with your children or students by having them take the skin of an orange and see what happens to it when flattened. One of the most popular mapmaker solutions is called a Mercator Projection. A Mercator projection is most accurate near the equator of a sphere and least accurate near the poles. All of the historic Apollo Landing sites were relatively close to the lunar equator and on the near side of the Moon-the side that is permanently locked by gravity to always face the Earth.

As you look at the lunar surface you can see dark flat areas called Maria (Latin for Seas) [since they were once thought to be oceans] and brighter Highland regions. If you press the button marked “Apollo” on the upper right side of your computer screen you will see markers showing the Apollo lunar landing sites. (After this brief tour, please try clicking the other control buttons to see topographic charts and other cool features available though this application.) You can see that indeed the Apollo sites are all near the equator on the Moon’s Earth-facing or near side.

Time to land and look around

Click on the little Astronaut and Flag marked “15.” A bubble opens up on the screen with the Apollo 15 Mission Patch and some information on that flight. A link invites us to Zoom in to see additional placemarks. Let’s go!

Clicking on the Zoom link takes us to a close-in view of the Apollo 15 landing site. We see a cluster of markers to the right of an interesting lunar canyon called Hadley Rille. Each of the markers is a tag to one or more resources including text, photos videos or other goodies. At the bottom of the screen we also see as series of thumbnail photos. Each of these thumbnails provide another way to get to the same resource

Click on the first thumbnail, the mission patch. A text bubble opens which points to the first map tag. Scan down to the end of the text. The link entitled “watch the landing” lets you download a cool video from the cockpit of the lunar lander Falcon’s final approach and landing.

IMPORTANT HINT
Next to the “watch the landing” link is another link that says “Read the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.” (in some other text bubbles it says “read the transcript.”

What this link really does is open up the door to a treasure trove of interesting information. The Apollo Lunar Surface Journals were started by Eric M. Jones who was interested in the communications between the astronauts and Mission Control (and between each other) during these historic first visits to another world. The Journal not only contains written transcripts, but also sound files so you can listen to these communications. Even better, Jones interviewed the astronauts and obtained their commentaries on selected parts of these communications so that we can understand what was really going on. In short, this site is a gold mine of information and having it referenced with the geographic tags in Google Moon will make it much more accessible to the public.

Starting our exploration
Okay, let’s scroll back to the top of the text bubble. At the top of the bubble on the right side is a link marked Next>>. Clicking there will take you to the next tag. (You also could click on the next thumbnail to the right of the mission patch one at the bottom of the screen.) This text bubble talks about the little mini-spacewalk called a “Standup EVA.” Scroll to the bottom of this bubble and you will see a “Read the transcript link.” Just above that link is a sentence with a link that says pictures. When you click that link you are transported to the Apollo 15 Image Library. Now you have, at your fingertips, a huge collection of mission images. You even have your choice of file size in case you want a very high resolution image to print for your class or your wall.

A Panoramic View
Let’s go to the next tag and text bubble. This contains a panoramic view that you can control. If you hold down your left mouse button and drag your cursor left or right, you can pan through a 360 degree view made up from photos taken as the astronauts looked out at the Moon from the top hatch of the Lunar Module. (You can also use the Left and Right pointing arrows on the Panorama Screen to accomplish this motion.) You can use the slider bar to zoom in and out and the photos will refocus as you do this.

Dad, may I borrow the car?
The next tag and text bubble talk about the deployment of the electric Lunar Rover vehicle that almost all of us find quite fascinating. At the end of this text bubble is a link to a fast-motion movie of the astronauts unloading this Moon car that you will enjoy.

Moon Zoom
Skip ahead to Tag 9 for another nice panorama. Try turning the image until you have centered the Lunar Rover vehicle. Now zoom in and out on it and enjoy the view of the Hadley Rille in the background.

Dune Crater
Continue to skip ahead to Dune Crater (Tag 21.) I was delighted to recall that a lunar crater was named in homage to Frank Herbert’s wonderful ecological science fiction novel Dune. Seeing the Earth from lunar distance (and on the trips between the Earth and the Moon) was a major factor in creating the global ecological consciousness that we have today. Indeed the first Earth Day was a direct result of the Apollo explorations.

This panorama will give you a good opportunity to play with the Zoom feature again. There are some very interesting rocks and rough terrain and you can almost feel the surface texture as you closely examine these areas. The astronauts reported that the surface soil or regolith had a texture similar to damp beach sand.

Go to Tag 25 and zoom in on the rough surfaces. I had the feeling that I was laying down right on the surface of the moon. If you examine the transcripts you will immediately see that the astronauts were always pressed for time. But you can spend as long as you like looking at whatever you wish!

Running and Walking in 1/6th Gravity
Tag 27 has a good movie clip where you can see what it was like to walk on the moon. The other Apollo site tags have many other examples (see Apollo 17 astronauts “skiing” and hopping for example.) Science fiction master Robert A. Heinlein quite accurately described what it would be like to operate in a space suite on the Moon in his classic juvenile novel Have Space Suit-Will Travel (see the Lunar Bibliography)

I’m skipping over many interesting tags where you can learn about the scientific work that Dave Scott and James Irwin accomplished during the Apollo 15 mission. I encourage you to look at each of these tags. Exploring them in sequence gives you a feel for the flow of the mission. You can learn more about this mission, and about the Soviet space program in Dave Scott and Alexi Leonov’s book Two Sides of the Moon

Before we leave the Apollo 15 site, let’s look at Tag 31. Check out the movie link to one of the best physics demonstrations ever seen as Scott drops a rock and a bird feather (appropriately from a falcon!) in the lunar vacuum as a tribute to Galileo. Before viewing this ask your students which will hit the moon first.

Bon Voyage!
Google Moon’s greatest strength is its ability to place a wealth of information into a geographic (or should we say selenographic) context that is immediately understandable and compelling. I encourage you to tour it personally, and to take a friend, a child or an entire class with you when you make your virtual trip. Perhaps the next photos and movies added to this site will be the result of the Google Lunar X PRIZE!

Gregg Maryniak, Director
James S. McDonnell Planetarium
Saint Louis Science Center