I was not to surprised this morning to read the news of Google and NASA joining forces in Silicon Valley at a new NASA facility. I have written a couple of posts recently that mentioned this reoccurring theme by Google to get involved in space information management. The first signs were shown with their Google Moon Map as showing in Google To The Moon (07/20/2005) and I even half hearted stated "The next thing you know they (Google) will be offering trips to the moon!" in Happy 7th Birthday Google (9/27/05).
So what does the Google/NASA alliance really mean? NASA is going to build a new base in Silicon Valley and share it with Google and they will work on research together. This new partnership comes at a time when the American people are less enthusiastic of the space program due to recent NASA disasters. US congresswoman Anna Eshoo hopes the partnership will, "enhance the future exploration of space". According to Google's CIO Eric Schmidt:
"Google and NASA share a common desire to bring a universe of information to people around the world."
So it sounds like we can expect to see more space imagery available at our fingertips via Google. I cannot wait to see what they plan to offer. Google Space perhaps?
To find out what the blogosphere is saying about Google/NASA alliance check out The Huffington Post, Shooting the Messenger, Slashdot, PC Doctor, odrakir, and Googlecrumbs. Also check out these articles on the Silicon.com, washingtonpost.com, MSNBC from Reuters and MSNBC from the AP.
