DIY Space: Eyes On NASA

Posted on by John Holst

NASAs Eyes

There are several great tools available online designed to educate the public about space discoveries.  The best ones use data gathered by our space faring machines and help put it all into an understandable form.  Which is why NASA has developed the “NASA’s Eyes” program.

NASA’s Eyes is a program that can be used for multiple uses regarding virtual planetary exploration and understanding.  The program can be downloaded from this link.  It is a good tool to use to help in our understanding of some of the things going on here on Earth, too.  Honestly, the more I play with this particular program, the more I like it.  There’s a lot of data NASA has collected over the years about a lot of things, and it’s great that I can look at it in this form and play around with it.

NASAs Eyes Grav
Gravity map of the Earth. Note the GRACE satellites on the left side.

There are three primary topics of the NASA’s Eyes exploration tool.  “Eyes on the Earth” focuses on the Earth, the Earth’s environment, characteristics, the satellites looking at the Earth, and the payloads on the satellites used to gather data all about the Earth.  You can load what NASA calls “datasets,” data about a particular topic, such as ocean salinity, that’s been put together over the years.  The dataset then is displayed to show some interesting characteristics about things we take for granted, like gravity (image above).

NASAs Eyes Kepler

“Eyes on the Solar System” has different kinds of datasets you can play with, but instead of the Earth, you can generally explore the Solar System.  There are different missions you can focus on, and see in great detail.  The Cassini mission (below)  around Saturn is pretty nifty.

NASAs Eyes Cassini

If you do get tired of the planets in our Solar System, there’s always the opportunity to look beyond, which is what the third set of datasets, called “Eyes on Exoplanets,” allows you to do.  Whether you wish to see exoplanets up close or just zoom out to admire the beauty of the galaxy we live in (below), Eyes on Exoplanets will help you.

Have a great time exploring space and please don’t forget to send a postcard :-).

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Published by John Holst

Ill-Defined Space is written by me, John Holst. ​If you’ve ever asked the following question, “What is this commercial space industry thing?” then welcome to my world. I will never have the answer to that question, but I do offer insights based on my industry experience and observations. I’ve tried defining, decrypting, deciphering, analyzing, and then translating the endless stream of the world’s space industry activities, policies, and press releases. I’ve experienced varying degrees of success in my attempts to do so. The upshot is that if you want thoughtful, occasionally useful, observations about the world’s space industry, then you may want to read my analyses. Boring, but potentially credibility-building information follows: I have a Master’s in Commercial Enterprise in Space through the Florida Institute of Technology. I was an undergrad at the University of Washington in Seattle, graduating from there with a degree in Journalism. My analysis of the space industry has been a definitive source for national lawmakers and departments, news outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and the San Francisco Chronicle, publications like National Geographic, and National Public Radio. It’s been published in The Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity from 2014-2023 (here’s a link to a 1Q19 promo copy). You can also see my work in Quilty Analytic’s series of LEO Broadband Reports. ​ I’ve worked in the United States Air Force, Missile Defense Agency, Cobham, Space Dynamics Laboratory, the Space Foundation, and Quilty Analytics. I focused on space operations in the first few and conducted space industry research and analysis with the last two.