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"Google and NASA share a common desireto bring a universe of information to people around the world," said Eric Schmidt, Google chief executive officer. "Imagine having a wide selection of images from the Apollo space mission at your fingertips whenever you want it. That's just one small example of how this collaboration could help broaden technology's role in making the world a better place."

If anyone has downloaded the Google programs Google Earth, Google Sky, Google Moon, or even Google Mars, then the Google programs should not be a surprise in their 3-D look or high-quality interaction with just about anyone who wants to use it and has a computeroh yeah, and knows how to use it. Besides, how many of us can actually afford to orbit any planet regardless whether it is Mars or the Moon, nonetheless pay our rent or buy a new car? The second best choice is through Google.

Developed as far back as September 28, 2005, Google and NASA Ames Research Center had joined forces for cutting-edge research and development when they signed a MOU, a memorandum of understanding for large-scale data management for the massive distribution of computing, bio-info-nano convergence. This is in addition to the encouragement of "the entrepreneurial space industry".

Today, almost two years later, Google and NASA are still working together with several programs in the bank. To peak them off, Google has recently announced they are announcing to sponsor a $30M race to the moon with the X Prize Foundation. The contest is about finding someone to build and land a spaceship to the moon within five years, focusing on the private firms and privately funded spaceships.

Part of the contest involves a robotic land rover that has to complete several missions. One of these missions includes the rover roaming approximately 500 meters while sending videos, images, and data back to Earth. Once they come in, the public will be able to go to the website for Google Lunar X Prize, able to view the images and data personally.

Open to all for the exploration of the environment of the moon for the benefit of humanity, having Google fund the purse and title the competition is beneficial for many reasons. Well-known for the latest user friendly and simplified looks of their new technology, as well as advanced hardware and software engineering, the hardware of Google is referred to as "a massive farm of 10,000 servers, capable of not only indexing more than 3 billion web documents but handling thousands of queries per second with sub-second response times."

Learn more about this author, Nancy L. Young-Houser.
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