Google Continues Foray Into Space
Last week, we told you about Google Sky, which is the Internet company’s effort to point the gaze of its incredibly successful Google Earth platform out into space.
But that’s not Google’s only foray into space:
Google and NASA have worked next to and with each other for a number of years; I’ve never been bothered by this fact, and I’m not complaining now. Yet the lines are getting even more blurred as former astronaut Ed Lu has gained a job with the search engine giant.
“Lu, who has a doctorate in astrophysics from Stanford University and a strong background in the academic research environment, will have a lot to offer to GoogleSky as well as to GoogleScholar and GoogleBooks,” writes Loretta Whitesides in an article for Wired….
[Lu] "may also play a role in the NASA-Google Space Act Agreement projects, announced in December 2006,” Whitesides continues. “Lu even has an article published in Nature on his idea for a ‘Gravity Tractor’ mission that could gently pull an asteroid off course over time.”
As WiredPro’s David Caverly points out, Google seems to be intent on covering its lunar bases.
(Hat tip to Wired.)
