Explore the Moon in 3D in Google Earth

It has been 40 years since the Apollo 11 mission landed on Moon. Commemorating this event NASA has released some exclusive footage of the landmark sites on the Moon. Google in participation with NASA and Japan’s space agency JAXA has developed a layer for it’s Google Earth application which will let you explore the moon in 3D.

If you already have the latest version of Google Earth (version 5.0) installed on our PC then you do not need to update the software. You can start your moon walk right away by going to Moon from the Planet button. For those of you who want to see those historical landing places on the Moon in 3D, download Google Earth 3D. You can also explore the moon from www.google.com/moon. However this is a plain 2D version which may not give you the full effects.

Google Earth lets you take a tour of the moon’s surface as it is presently, with the Apollo landing sites being flagged and 3D models of the spacecraft and astronauts shown with detailed paths and site names. A background narration from one of the Apollo 11 astronauts, Buzz Aldrin gives you a guided tour. You can zoom into the 360 degree photos to clearly see those famous footprints.