If you can land a craft on the Moon, roam around for 500 meters, take pictures with your craft, and then send a “Mooncast” back to Earth, Google wants to give you $20 million.
The Mooncast consists of digital data that must be collected and transmitted to the Earth composed of the following:
• High resolution 360º panoramic photographs taken on the surface of the Moon;
• Self portraits of the rover taken on the surface of the Moon;
• Near-real time videos showing the craft’s journey along the lunar surface;
• High Definition (HD) video;
• Transmission of a cached set of data, loaded on the craft before launch (e.g. first email from the Moon).
The Google Lunar X PRIZE is designed to spur on imaginations and innovation, though I think it’s taking place partly because Google wants to add Street View images of the Moon to their Google Maps software. Plus, it’s going to make for some awesome YouTube videos!
Urban Monarch and Modern Drunkard put together two great guides about how to score free drinks when you go out. Put down the credit card, and slowly step away.
Artist Felix Beck created a non-visual graffiti project called Soundbombs, “innocuous-looking 6-inch plastic shells that broadcast short clips (lines from Shakespeare, flatulence, or anything else you record) to unwitting passersby”. He doesn’t sell them, but instead takes applications, and prospective users must tell him where they will use it and how much they’re willing to pay. Get loud.
Sodium Laurel Sulfate, and ingredient in toothpaste, blocks sweet sensors on your tongue, which explains why orange juice tastes so bad after you brush.
Stuart Haygarth created the Tide Chandelier out of man made debris that washed up along a stretch of the Kent coastline. “The sphere is an analogy for the moon which effects the tides which in turn wash up the debris”.
Last night, the first lunar eclipse in three years occurred, and I was stuck on the West coast and didn’t get to see it. Thankfully, the Internet comes to the rescue in times like this, and you can see what the rest of the world got to see through the magic Flickr eye.
Goggles is a Flash based Google Maps flight simulator. Using the arrow keys to bank and dive, A and Z to change speed, and the space bar to fire, you fly your little biplane around on a Google map, exploring any areas you please, including the Moon and Mars. It’s surprisingly fun for a game with no goal, and surprisingly addictive. Fly on.
