The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing took place on
the 20th of July and everyone involved was celebrated to honor the
amazing achievement. All the usual names were there; Armstrong, Aldrin,
Collings … but what about the lesser known people who helped make
it possible? – asked Google. They created a huge tribute to Margaret
Hamilton – the director of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, now
known as Draper Labs, in 1969 – with a massive portrait in the Mojave
Desert, by reverse engineering 53,555 solar mirrors, each almost as
big as a car, to reflect the light of the moon. The portrait was even
bigger than New York’s Central Park. Big ups!

Paco Conde: “I absolutely love this project. Margaret Hamilton was the
first software engineer at NASA, creating the software that launched
the Apollo 11. To pay tribute to her, Google Earth used the moonlight
reflected in a solar energy array at night to create a giant image of
Margaret – made of moonlight.”