Now that NASA has entered the virtual world with its two islands in Second Life, public outreach, collaboration and space exploration may never be the same again. On its CoLab Island, outreach and collaboration are the focus, as Part One of this two-part feature explains. Its other island, called “Explorer Island,” focuses on the engineering and science-visualization side of space exploration. “In the ’80s and ’90s, I was one of many people who took the T-square away from drafting tables and handed drafters a mouse instead,” said Charles White of NASA’s JPL, which manages Explorer Island.
