This is a cool idea. You know, when I did my research on Mars two decades ago, we had to get the USGS to send us maps made in the 70s from the Voyager II satellite. Now we have google. And it makes me wonder about these sorts of technologies, where at a large expense a huge corporation will make something publicly available 'just because'. So corporations like Google can't be all bad. Of course, if Microsoft would step up to the plate, that'd be great. I have a hard time recalling when MS has released anything for free (with the exception of the ubiquitious Internet Explorer and Windows Media player, which are both excellent programs). Well, MS is probably more interested in making money than young corps like google.