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Grand Tour for the iPhone is a grand exploration of the solar system

by Mel Martin Apr 6th 2009 at 4:00PM

I admit I have a real love for astronomy and other science apps. Mike Smithwick, the creator of Distant Suns [App Store link] has come up with another winner for the space minded. Grand Tour [App Store link] is a $4.99US application that will let you tour the solar system in very smooth and realistic animations. Named after the NASA Voyager missions* of the '70s that explored the outer planets, Grand Tour will let you move to Mars, explore its two moons, and then shuffle off to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond. The program beautifully renders the starry background accurately, as well as presenting the Milky Way.

The app is loaded with information about the planets and moons, and with a flick of your finger you can rotate the planets and see their relationship to the sun and their satellites in real time. You can also speed up or reverse time, illustrating the orbits of the planets and their smaller companions.

Another nice touch is when you look at the earth, the images of the clouds are in real time (updated every 3 hours) so you are pretty much seeing the real thing in the palm of your hand.

I still marvel at how esoteric iPhone apps are getting. There is truly something for everyone, and the ability to hold a scale model of our solar system and interact with it would have seemed like science fiction a few years ago. Thank goodness Apple decided to bless real apps last year. The experience offered by programs like Grand Tour would really have been lame as a web app.

Grand Tour runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch with OS software 2.1 or greater.

* One of our readers correctly points out that the original NASA Grand Tour missions never happened, because of deep budget cuts. Many of the ideas from the mission were incorporated into the Voyager missions. Thanks for the clarification Mark.

Check out the gallery for some screen shots.

Grand Tour

  • Venus with earth in the background
  • Preferences screen
  • Earth with near real time clouds
  • Jupiter
  • Mars


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I admit I have a real love for astronomy and other science apps. Mike Smithwick, the creator of Distant Suns [App Store link] has come up...
 

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marcoiac

We need more educational apps like this one and less 'fantasy' apps for iPhone.

April 07 2009 at 10:49 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Butch Hauke

I'm probably gonna have to buy this one.

April 07 2009 at 10:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Olga

Great app for the lovers of Astronomy, it looks really amazing!
One more app for star and planet gazing out there is Star Walk.
By the way "the Easter Egg Hunting Competition" in Star Walk is on. Everybody who wants to win an iPod or iTunes gift card can download Star Walk and find 9 Easter eggs. Read more here: http://blog.iwindowsmobile.com/?p=61
Thanks!

April 07 2009 at 4:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Proxima

MLJ is almost right. The initial Grand Tour project envisioned sending a probe to all five of the outer planets. Due to cost reasons a more modest mission to visit "just" Jupiter and Saturn was substituted instead. Those were the Voyagers. However, since the spacecraft were operating so well, Voyager 2 was sent on a "what the heck" mission to Uranus, and finally Neptune, visiting 4 out of the initial 5 GT targets. Since then Voyager 2 and the Grand Tour are considered synonymous.

For Example:

http://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/exhibits/voyager/default.html

April 06 2009 at 7:39 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MLJ

Just FYI, "Grand Tour" didn't refer to the Voyager missions, but to a mission that was planned but never completed due to NASA budget cuts. Grand Tour was a series of 4 probes that would have taken advantage of an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto that occurred in the late 1970s to explore all the outer planets. When Grand Tour was canceled, some elements were incorporated into the later Voyager missions.

April 06 2009 at 5:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MLJ

Just FYI, "Grand Tour" didn't refer to the Voyager missions, but to a mission that was planned but never completed due to NASA budget cuts. Grand Tour was a series of 4 probes that would have taken advantage of an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto that occurred in the late 1970s to explore all the outer planets. When Grand Tour was canceled, some elements were incorporated into the later Voyager missions.

April 06 2009 at 5:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sai

Find more interesting iphone apps in http://www.appsd.com

April 06 2009 at 4:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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