Inventions .... what a boring world we would have without them

Are we just a few short years from "walking" in space like we do right now with Google maps?  I hope so.

From VICE:
....Supernovas and black holes are hard enough to track for NASA—and for space buffs with weaker telescopes, it’s even harder. But thanks to a little-known Canadian designed app called SkyWatch, cosmic events are being virtually mapped for your average astronomer.

Using raw telemetric information from NASA, SkyWatch displays space data on a Google Maps interface. It visually highlights cosmic events as they occur in real time across the universe. The SkyWatch team came up with the app during NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, and were the first Canadian team ever to win first prize in a category. Right now the app is a working prototype, and there's a new, slicker version in the works.

The app is powered with data from NASA's Gamma-ray Coordinates Network. “It’s basically a bunch of servers that’s housed in one of their facilities. Scientists input the data they want to share with other scientists around the world into the network, and the servers send out the data to other telescopes in various locations," said Dexter Jagula, the team project leader. 

Without an astrophysicist on board, Jagula and his team spent a large chunk of time deciphering the telemetric data they collected from NASA.

“The telemetric data is collected by scientists and transmitted for other scientists,” he said. “But for someone like myself or anyone who hasn’t delved into astrophysics, it’s a bit of a mystery.”.............