NASA's Newest Contractor Is Google

NASA, and Google announced that they have signed an agreement to work with NASA on a variety of problems. To Many this might at first seem like strange bedfellows. NASA has also amassed more information on out planet and the rest of universe then any other single organization in history. That makes the partnership with Google much more necessary. It is also known that both of Googles cofounders have an interest in the space industry. The first task will be to make the information that NASA has avaible on the Internet.



I first had to get over the surprise of the title, then I read the article. This sounds like a great partner ship. Organizing all of NASA's data and making it available to any one to view over the Internet sounds like a great idea. I will defiantly be there to see some of it. However, I also remember some of the things that have been blocked from the public from space. Like when the data coming from the Hubble telescope became encrypted. I can't get over the aspect that what the government does not want us to see coming from space we are still not seeing. So will this be a truely free flow of information, or will it be just what the government lets us see?

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[edit on 18-12-2006 by UM_Gazz]

First this and now this!?! NASA is going through an internal rebirth!

Man... this is one area of Government that I do wish was privatized. Government Websites are notorious for their bad design and user unfriendliness. Teaming up with a For Profit Company that prides itself on a Clean and Simple interface with a somewhat egalitarian business strategy(getting income from the low end of the advertising spectrum rather than the medium to high end) is a genius move on the part of NASA and frankly I hope Google and other companies in the same line of business start teaming up with agency websites to make those sites much more accessible to everyone.

[edit on 18-12-2006 by sardion2000]

Sardion,
you did make a lot of good point. It does seem like NASA might be going through an evolution. Again I hope all the information does get organised so any one can acess it.
I did like your subject line.

Are they trying to slowly educate more and more people about science and astronomy? Anyone think this is a way for them to prepare the public for something much larger? Oh, I don't know what, but perhaps life in our own solar system or elsewhere?

Originally posted by Impreza
Are they trying to slowly educate more and more people about science and astronomy? Anyone think this is a way for them to prepare the public for something much larger? Oh, I don't know what, but perhaps life in our own solar system or elsewhere?

Impreza,
well that is a nice thought. There is a wealth of information out there dealing with the subject of life and visitors not from this world. But is something that I did menschen in the opening post. Will this be a free flow of information or will we be seeing only what the government wants us to see?
I fear that the latter might be the case, so I am hopping that when Google gets all the information organised in such a way that any one can view it that something will be found that the government missed the first time through.

It's kind of funny, but for the past little while, I was thinking how it would be nice if every bit of information, photo and video that NASA has, was collected and put together on one site that was easy to navigate and access. And now look what happens. This is great. Hopefully this helps to educate and to get more people into space and science too.

Originally posted by jra
It's kind of funny, but for the past little while, I was thinking how it would be nice if every bit of information, photo and video that NASA has, was collected and put together on one site that was easy to navigate and access.

Yes I do agree that wold be very nice, and it sounds like most everyone else around hear thinks so also. I can just see the new Star Treck movie, using Google Space to pull the planet Risa for information on where to beam down.
But then again all that goes back to the original question, will we be seeing everything NASA has or just what the will let us see?

This is wonderful. I have a small collection of interstellar images that I have on a random background generator so I can always see something nice. It is always hard to find good size ones though. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to get hundreds more. i just love those images of nebulas, galaxies, clusters and so on. Very vivid and colorful.

Originally posted by DYepes
i just love those images of nebulas, galaxies, clusters and so on. Very vivid and colorful.

Dypes,
Oh so do I. The bold color immages of the nebulas and galaxies have all been through processing. I hope we will also be able to see the immages before they have been prosessed.

From what I hear they are not very attractive without the processing I think? But hey nice to see what they look like for real I guess eh? I am sure those will be made available, but I am sure we will like the enhanced versions better.