With the launch of Moon in Google Earth today, you can now explore our nearest celestial neighbor from within Google Earth. Beginning in 1959, we began to send probes and landers to the lunar surface, and most of them remain there to this day.
Many of these objects have been modeled in Google SketchUp, and are based on drawings, photographs, and dimensions. One model that has a prolific presence on the Moon comes from Google 3D Warehouse model contributor, Pagan. This user modeled the Apollo Lunar Module and it is featured at each of the Apollo mission landing sites, as well as in the guided tours.
To view these models in Google Earth, first switch to Moon via the planetary drop-down menu at the top of the screen.
Next, expand the "Moon Gallery" in the left Layers panel.
From here you can virtually visit a variety of artifacts, spacecrafts, and mission landing sites by double-clicking on any of the models listed. Here are some examples of what you can find:
Apollo 11 Landing Site
Lunokhod 1 and Luna 17
Lunar Rover You can also view these models in SketchUp by downloading them from our Moon Objects collection in the Google 3D Warehouse. Happy exploring!
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5 comments :
Very nice, but one major nit: the ascent modules are not there any more (at least not on top of the descent modules).
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Congratulations to Google for adding this great new feature (re: The Moon) to Google Earth.
Perfect timing considering the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, touched down 40 years ago on July 20th, 1969.
I enjoyed watching the 40th anniversary celebrations last week "almost" as much as I enjoyed the Apollo Program growing up as a kid.
I watched all of the Apollo Missions from Apollo 4 and every televised manned space mission since. So now having the opportunity to explore the Moon and beyond using Google Earth becomes more of a joy by the day.
Thanks again Google.
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