Posted on Monday, May 28th, 2012 by Danny Davies
Space. The final frontier. It’s still pretty mystical to everyone in the science world, never mind the Internet world. Which probably explains why there’s not that many really good websites about Space flying around. There are, however, some absolutely awesome ones that you definitely need in your favorites. And we at All My Faves are psyched to share them with you.
Houston? We don’t have a problem!
SPACE INVADERS. No review of the best of space on the Internet could possibly leave out Space Invaders. And so we didn’t! It’s the original space game. And it’s made the journey from 1980s arcade machines to the wide world of the web.
Because we’re kind and generous, we tried put the actual game here. It didn’t work. But you can play it here. This is all. Retro’s the new retro. 😉
RED BULL STRATOS – Sometimes peoples’ fascination with Space (and jumping from massive heights) leads them to do strange things. Felix Baumgartner is one of those people. He’s teamed up with Red Bull in one of the most fascinating – and downright crazy – scientific experiments in recent years: He’s going to take a hot air balloon up to the stratosphere… and jump! He’s aiming to become the first man to break the speed of sound in a free fall from the absolute edge of Space, and this website is charting the experiment from start to eye watering finish.
…is that this actually sorta happened in 1960! Check out this video, the guy even lights up a cigarette at the end! Child’s play, clearly.
WE CHOOSE THE MOON – 40 years after the first mission to the Moon, this awesome, interactive website celebrates by completely recreating it, step by step. It’s got everything you need to actually feel like you’re there with good old Neil and his trusty sidekick Buzz as they make those iconic first steps on the surprisingly mesmerizing, giant rock we live next to. It’s brilliant, using real recordings, photos and videos from the Houston control center, JFK’s viewing point, and Apollo 11 itself. Check it out!
SKYVIEW – An amazing little app this. It uses the awesome ‘augmented reality’ effects on the iPhone and iPad to allow you to walk around with your own virtual planetarium in your hands. Watch your favorite stars and constellations fade in and out of your camera view, search for stars and planets’ current location, and track celestial objects’ path through the skies in a 24 hour period (including satellites and the space station!) Available on the App Store on iTunes for $1.99, you can learn more about Skyview here.
Didn’t think aliens were real? All a load of rubbish? Think again. There’s other Earths out there. And this video is about the scientists looking for ’em. Watch it! (warning, it’s quite long, but actually mind blowing. So either watch it now or save it for later) 🙂
ZOONIVERSE – Most Space experiments usually get left to the big guys at NASA (and their Eastern competitors…). But not at Zooniverse. Here’s a noble little website that’s democratizing big science. It lets you participate in some of the coolest Space and science experiments from around the web. So if you’ve always fancied yourself as an amateur scientist, check out Zooniverse, participate in massive, online, global science experiments & discover amazing things you never knew about Space.
NASA KIDS’ CLUB – There aren’t many good websites about Space for kids, but this effort from NASA is probably the best out there. It admittedly looks a little dated, but more importantly, it’s fun, informative, and is full of sound and interactivity. It’s even got special areas (and art supples) for teachers and parents. The NASA Kids’ Club certainly captured my attention, and seeing as the rest of the All My Faves HQ thinks I’m a big kid anyway, that’s a good indicator that it’ll capture your 10 year old’s too! Click here to discover the best of Space with your lil’ darlings.
I AM FLYING TO THE MOON – Space Invaders may be the ultimate retro space game, but if you’re looking for something a little, well, newer, this is the Internet’s best, new Space game: I Am Flying To The Moon. It’s a cute, free game where you simply try to fly your apparently wooden rocket as high as you can until you reach the moon. The further you get, the more coins you fly through, and the more obstacles you avoid along the way leads to you earning money, which can be spent on improving the tech behind your rocket. So there’s lots of incentive to keep going. Definitely deserves your attention!
Well, ok, they’re not actually official. But they may as well be. After all with a name like Space.com, you’re pretty much setting yourself up to be the official website of Space. Big ask, whether it succeeds, I’m not so sure. But it’s still worth a look. Other big Space websites you should have in your galactic inspired faves are BBC Space, NASA.gov (of course) and National Geographic Space. All good. All big. All almost official.
PLANET EARTH – Ok, this is seriously cool. Planet Earth is a very simple website that shows off the absolutely stunning images and videos of Earth taken from the Electro L Satellite. These are the most detailed, accurate images ever taken of Earth from Space. Take a look at your planet here.
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