Google Mars

Weekly Update, September 9, 2022

Justin and I made a rocket this week.

One of Justin’s “preferred activities” is playing Google Earth on my iPad. He has walked the streets of New York (he likes the tall buildings), climbed Mount Everest and swum the Pacific Ocean. All from the comfort of our couch. 

Justin being Justin is, of course, not completely satisfied with that. He doesn’t want to just do cool stuff on Earth, he wants to travel… farther. So he asked me if there was a Google Earth for other planets. I told him that I remembered that Google was doing a project a few years ago to incorporate some of the latest data into a Google Earth type project for Mars. We looked online and found that there is, in fact, a Google Mars. 

The problem is that Google Mars is a 2D rendering and can’t be manipulated the same way that Google Earth can be. Justin was upset. He wanted to know why it didn’t work.

I explained that there just wasn’t enough mapping data for Mars for Google to build something like that. It would take a lot of surface level detail to be able to do a 3D rendering. 

“No problem,” Justin said. “We will just get more information for Google.”

“J, I am pretty sure Google is gonna be able to get more info than we can.”

“We can help, dad. We just need to send a rocket to Mars to get more information. Let’s build it now.”

“Good idea. Unfortunately it is time to go to school. Let’s build it when you get home.”

(Justin considers) “Fine.”

So when he got home, we got out the magnetic blocks and built a rocket. If anyone knows anyone at Google, please let them know that Justin has their back.