WASHINGTON - NASA's vast database of imagery and information about extraterrestrial bodies will soon be more readily available to anyone with an Internet connection.

 

NASA Ames and Google announced the signing of a space act agreement from the Ames facility in Moffett Field, Calif. in a Dec. 18 press release and in a teleconference with reporters the same day.

 

The first product release will make weather forecasts and high-resolution 3-D maps of the Moon and Mars available to the public on Google's Web site along with the company's suite of other programs and services like GoogleEarth.

 

The technology was described as being similar to Google's Global Connections, which joins mapping technology with National Geographic stories and photography. But instead of learning about other cultures, people will be able to "feel the crunch of martian soil on their feet," Ames Director Pete Worden said, comparing the experience to a primitive Star Trek holodeck.

 

Expect initial product release within the next six to eight months, according to Worden. "This is going to go pretty rapidly."

 

Both parties explained, in a round about way, that the agreement is not a business relationship, but rather a partnership in which both entities compensate their respective employees who work on the project. Worden said that Ames currently has over 50 such agreements. Though the agreement is with Ames, the project is NASA-wide.

 

Google has been at the Ames campus since last year, but this is the first public statement about their collaboration.

 

NASA and Google also are finalizing details for additional collaborations, which may include joint research, products, facilities, education and missions, according to an Ames press release. "These discussions are ongoing," Worden said during the press conference.