NASA planetary data visualized in 3D is now available on your desktop computer.

Over the past half decade, NASA has amazed us with other-worldly pictures beamed back to Earth from its intrepid space explorers. From the Viking, Mariner and Voyager missions to the Moon landings and more recent Magellan, Galileo, and Mars Exploration Rovers missions, NASA has dramatically expanded humankind's knowledge and understanding of our interstellar neighbors.

With the latest release of NASA World Wind, more of NASA's exciting planetary imagery is being made available for both scientists and enthusiasts alike. In addition to the Earth and Moon imagery already available, version 1.3.5 now allows users to explore the surfaces of Venus and Mars and see imagery from Jupiter and its moons Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io.

Images of Venus

From the spring of 1989 through the summer of 1994, NASA's Magellan spacecraft orbited Earth's nearest neighbor, collecting an array of information about the surface of Venus and its atmosphere. During the first 8 months of its mission, Magellan mapped over 84% of the planet at 100m resolution, 10 times better than that of earlier Soviet-era space probes. Over the course of its next four years in orbit, Magellan was able to map 98% of the surface of Venus, taking altimeter and radiometry measurements. By combining the altimeter, radiometry and surface image data from the mission, World Wind is able to deliver the most accurate 3D interactive visualization of Venus currently available.

Surveying Mars

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) began operations in orbit around the red planet in the fall of 1997, and is currently the oldest Mars spacecraft still operating. Over the past eight and a half years, the orbiter has been beaming back images and data from Martian orbit, data which has been used to plan subsequent NASA missions to the planet.

The initial Martian data sets available in World Wind are all derived from MGS and made available from a number of NASA partners. NASA, the US Geological Survey (USGS), Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS), Stanford University and Arizona State University (ASU) have all processed various data sets from the instruments onboard MGS. This data, while traditionally delivered piecemeal on a number of web sites across the Internet, is now all available in one visually rich, interactive location.

Over the coming months, more and more of NASA's massive Martian data sets will be made available within World Wind, further enhancing its use as a mission planning and operations support platform.

Jupiter and its Moons

One of the best parts of World Wind is that as an open source platform, users are free to make their own content contributions. Such has been the case with Jupiter, where the initial versions of this planetary data set were contributed by the World Wind user community, and made available for download from the web. With data sets for the gas giant and its moons Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io now included as part of the standard World Wind installation, all users now have immediate visual access to these sizable members of our solar system.

More Planets. More Platforms. More Data.

RIACS is moving forward to dramatically extend the capabilities of NASA World Wind, making more planets and more data available on a wider variety of platforms. Keep visiting the RIACS web site over the coming months and see as the World Wind platform experiences dramatic growth and provides users with even more ways to both access and contribute data.

For more information or to download the latest version of World Wind, please visit http://worldwind.riacs.edu .