It’s one small step for an Android phone, and one giant leap for mobile kind. Our HTC Desire has just landed on the Moon, and your Android phone can too. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong had to undergo years of training and plonk themselves on top of tonnes of rocket fuel to make it to the lunar surface, but with the full web browsing smarts of your Android phone you can explore the Moon while you’re on the bus or queueing at the supermarket. Read on, and we’ll show you how.
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Fire up Google Moon
Google Moon is the product of a collaboration between Google and the white coated chaps at the NASA Ames Research Centre. It pulls together lunar maps and charts to create a full map of the Moon, available on your ultra-smart Android phone. It even gives you different ways of viewing the surface of the Earth’s rocky satellite, and plots objects left behind by human explorers too.
Tap into it by firing up the browser of your Android phone, and typing www.google.com/moon into the address bar. You’ll see the browser leap into life, showing our closest celestial cousin, as well as controls at the top of the screen to change you you see its surface.
View Google Moon in Visible mode and you’ll see a mosaic of images grabbed by the 1994 Clementine Mission which flew over the surface of the moon taking snaps like a giant metallic moon tourist. The black and white images in the Visible mode of Google Moon are what you’d see if you were in orbit above the surface.
Elevation mode shows Google Moon in a colour-coded relief map, so you can get a sense of where the mountains and valleys of the lunar landscape are.
Apollo is the most interesting way to look at Google Moon (and the default view you’ll get when you first fire up the website). It shows markers for every Apollo mission that landed on the moon and if you zoom in using the controls on the left of the screen, you’ll get further information about each of the Apollo landing sites with links to audio, images and articles.
Multitouch the Moon
If your Android phone supports multitouch, you can pinch its screen to zoom in and out of Google Moon. The HTC Legend packs multitouch inside its slick metallic shell, letting you swipe across the surface, and use two fingers to plummet closer to the surface.
If your Android phone comes without multitouch, don’t despair. You can still get up close and personal using the zoom controls in the bottom right of the Google Moon website.
Plan the perfect Moon visit with multitasking
Android phones all come with a fully-featured web browser that means you can visit the Google Moon site directly from your Android phone. What’s more, because Android lets you run multiple apps at one time, you can explore the moon while listening to a selection of space-themed tunes with the Spotify Android app, IM your friends about the amazing space facts you’ve just uncovered, or emailing links to amazing lunar photos to fellow explorers.
Use the Opera Android app instead of the standard Android browser, and you’ll get tabbed browsing too, letting you tap into the many external links littered around the Apollo landing sites without having to leave the Google Moon site. Uncover videos stashed on the lunar surface too, and you’ll find they open in the built-in YouTube Android app.
