Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

mars posts

Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Google

Google and Nasa work together to distribute Ames data

google nasa partnershipGoogle and Nasa officially announced their special Space Act Agreement Monday. Through this new relationship, both companyies and government agency will work on technical problems that face large scale data management and human-computer interfaces. Google and NASA's Ames Research Center's first focus will be to make NASA's information readably available on the internet, namely real time weather tracking, high-res 3D maps of the moon and mars, and real time tracking of the International Space Station. This partnership, which began in September of last year, was a long while coming, but now that it's actually in the works, it's getting a lot of people excited at the possibilities that both organizations bring to the table in the long run.

[Update: Thanks to Jeremy for reminding me that NASA is still a government agency, and hasnt made the switch over to a company as of yet! ]

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Mars time comes to your desktop

Mars ClockEver wonder what time it is on Mars? If you are an astronomy buff at all, you may have. Mars Clock is a small Java based application available from NASA's Goddard Institute website. This nifty app will display the surface of Mars and rotate in real time, Mars time that is. You can also toggle the display of the rover landing zones on Mars, as well as current locations of each. Did you know that scientists working on Mars projects actually put themselves on Mars time, so they can be "in-sync" with Mars daytime? And I thought I didn't get much sleep. Man, those guys are hardcore. Mars Clock is out of this world. No, I suppose it wasn't so funny, oh well. I am going to find out what time it is on Mars right now.

Filed under: Fun, Web services, Google

Google Maps lands on Mars

Google MarsFor the interplanetary traveler, Google has launched Google Mars which lets you pan and zoom around the red planet's surface. It gives you three different views: visible, color-coded elevation, and infrared. Unfortunately there's no cheesy easter eggs a la Google Moon, but there are a bunch of markers for locating landmarks (including the legendary "face" and the less well-known Happy Face Crater) and landing sites. Google Mars and the mars-themed logo at Google.com commemorate the 1855 birth of astronomer Percival Lowell.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio