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Most Complete Topographical Map of Earth Complete

Posted by timothy on from the please-suggest-applications-below dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Kudos to NASA and the Japanese trade ministry for mapping 99% of the Earth's surface, surpassing their previous effort, with which the new data will be amalgamated. Apparently, the data will be free to download and use."

4 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. The other %1? by basementman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Anyone know last 1% isn't mapped? Is it just hard to access or is it part of a top secret organization?

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    1. Re:The other %1? by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "or is it part of a top secret organization?"

      My guess, most unmapped terrain is not secret. WHy? Because 1% of the surface of the earth is absolutely huge. THe surface area of earth is 510.072.000 km. 1% would be 5.100.720 km, which is 2258x2258 km. Such a large area can't be secret in its entirety.

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      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    2. Re:The other %1? by MadCow42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If you simply look at the image, it seems like a few random streaks in the image file. I'd guess systems issues / data corruption, or other collection faults before I'd guess super-secret military bases.

      Ideally they would combine this with previous data (relatively adjusted to this baseline) to fill in the gaps.

      MadCow.

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  2. Technically free, but not in practice by macraig · · Score: 1, Interesting

    What's likely to happen with this "free" data is that Navteq, TeleAtlas, and Google will grab it for free, but then the rest of us will have to pay dearly for the privilege of using their commercialized derivative. NASA's license for it should include clauses demanding fees for any commercial uses, and then donate the fees to the FSF or some other org that benefits the Greater Good.