Nasa and Google are embarking on a major space information project called the “Space Act Agreement”.
Details are HERE and this looks like annother innovation coup by the Big G:
Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA’s information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future.
“This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars,” said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin
Thanks to Glenn for the tip!
Joe Duck 
I think this is another major step of the private sector connecting with space related activities. Now we will start to see the early commercialization of space explorations, travel and ultimately colonization. This is another small step in the very big steps we are beginning to take.
We can only hope we have leadership that has the vision to see this through.
This was reported today too…very cool…trying wrapping your head around this.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/061218_first_objects.html
Wow – incredible about the first objects in the universe, about 13 billion years old. I’d sure like to ask them “hey, what were you doing 14 billion years ago dudes?”
Funny thing for me is trying to grasp the whole idea we are looking at an event whose age is twice that of earth. Pretty amazing if you think about it and who said time travel wasn’t possible… 🙂 but that is a whole other topic and which BTW a UCONN professor claims he will have it accomplished within 10 years.
Time travel? I hadn’t heard about that claim though I would not assert that anything is “impossible”.
When I read up on some of the implications of M Theory, now prevalent in physics circles, it just blows my mind.
And check out Professor Tipler’s stuff. Not mainstream thinking, but he’s no crackpot either, rather a prominent physicist who insists he has proven we will all be resurrected in a huge artificial intelligence at the end of time. Life reruns on galactic TV – count me in!
Hey, here’s a summary of the Time Machine prof – wildly interesting!: http://www.physorg.com/news63371210.html