Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have a rather ambitious plan to begin colonizing Mars in the next few years, however, the vast majority of us will sadly never set foot outside planet Earth, let alone on our planetary neighbor. That said, Google recently used millions of images to create interactive 3D maps of moons, planets, and space rocks formerly known as planets, and others in our solar system. So while many of us may never fare the infinite void, we can vicariously venture our little sliver of the cosmos from the confines of our smartphone.
In 2014, Google added Mars to Google Maps to celebrate Curiosity’s second year roving the red planet and with this latest update, Google added 12 new virtual worlds. This brings the grand total to 16 celestial bodies including Dione, Enceladus, Iapetus, Mimas, Rhea, Titan, Europa, Ganymede, Io, Pluto, Ceres, Venus, Mercury, Mars, our moon, and, of course, Earth.
The latest maps were made from images gathered during NASA and European Space Agency initiatives, and the planetary tours are so Saturnian-centric thanks to the vast trove of data collected during the now defunct yet stalwart Cassini mission. It’s important to note that not all of the portions of these maps are nearly as detailed as others. For example, in areas where more comprehensive imagery is unavailable, the maps simply show a broad overview of a region. However, other portions are so thoroughly mapped you can ogle Olympus Mons, the potentially life-sustaining lakes of Titan, and even the massive impact crater on our distant so-called “Death Star” in stunning detail.
To begin the galactic tour, simply open Google Maps per usual and then zoom all the way out until your seemingly adrift around the Earth itself. Then, along the left side of the screen, the 16 available maps (and the International Space Station tour) are clickable to quickly beam you to your desired destination. If you prefer to skip the blast off from Street View you can simply begin the tour from low Earth orbit by clicking here.
If we whet your spacefaring whistle, you may also like to get your Sagan on with our best space photos gallery.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.