NASA thanks Sun Microsystems for their support in the development of World Wind Java. This generous support has led to the very artful and exemplary use of the Java OpenGL API. The possibilities for portable, high-performance 3D graphics rendering are now wide open.

The dream has always been code once, run anywhere. NASA and Sun are helping to make that dream a readily accessible 3D reality, even if it is a virtual one!

Open source technology, when well applied, spurs innovation. This infinite room for innovation also provides for absolute security when this technology is used internally. NASA World Wind visualization technology also provides for proprietary use by business and government, while both will forever benefit from evolution of the code base by Java developers everywhere.

NASA has, as do many of us, an extraordinary wealth of data. For NASA this can be measured in terabytes a day, be it from satellites orbiting Earth or telescopes peering into deep space. NASA World Wind visualization technology can readily deliver that geospatial data in the most compelling and accessible manner possible.

The power to innovate with this technology is now in your hands. You are free to build into this NASA World Wind Java 3D visualization technology, whatever you think it needs. And you are free to extend or embed the component architecture to your wildest dreams, for business or pleasure, for research or education, but always for compelling information exchange about this world of ours.

NASA has always spurred innovation. Working together with Sun Microsystems, our industry partner in this enterprise, we are creating a world full of opportunity.

World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.

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