Detailed Globes Enhance Education and Recreation

Tuesday, January 01 2008

NASA’s new Blue Marble: Next Generation satellite imagery now provides even higher 500-meter resolution, which Orbis is planning to utilize for giant (30-foot plus) diameter world globes.

Orbis also developed the exclusive NightGlow Cities feature, enabling EarthBalls to display the world’s cities as the globes revolve from daylight into night. Using light emissions data from U.S. Department of Defense satellites, city lights are identified with photoluminescent ink, fluorescing brightly under black ultraviolet light, adding a new dimension of authenticity to these world replicas.

Product Outcome

Orbis inflatable globes are available in sizes from 1 to 100 feet in diameter, with the most common being the standard 16-inch and 1-meter diameter EarthBalls. These smaller globes are ideal for educational purposes and have been used everywhere from preschools to universities. They come with a 20-page book of facts, games, and suggested activities, including a game of indoor classroom volleyball. They have been sold in thousands of gift shops, toy stores, museum shops, and specialty stores.

Over 100 Orbis world globes from 2 to 20 feet in diameter have been custom-built for a variety of display purposes. They have been used as temporary exhibits at numerous events, such as conferences, trade shows, festivals, concerts, and parades. For these types of purposes, the company maintains a fleet of rental globes ranging from 3 to 16 feet in diameter. Globes of various sizes have been exhibited at numerous events worldwide. Last year, a 16-foot-diameter Orbis globe was exhibited at the United Nations’ World Urban Forum, in Vancouver, Canada; the Space 2006 conference, in San Jose, California; and the X-Prize Cup Personal Spaceflight Exposition, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Giant Orbis globes have been put on permanent display at schools, churches, museums, libraries, and a variety of other locations. Orbis recently installed a 10-foot-diameter, internally illuminated, rotating globe in the education center at Washington’s Fairchild Air Force Base; an 8-foot-diameter rotating world globe at the entrance to the new Evolving Planet exhibit in Chicago’s Field Museum; and another 8-foot-diameter rotating world globe with NightGlow Cities in the new Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in New York City’s Times Square.

Orbis globes can be mounted on floor pedestals, suspended overhead, filled with helium and tethered in the air, or even deployed as remote-controlled flying “EarthBlimps.” Small electric motors enable the globes to slowly rotate on their axes, as does the real Earth. Internal illumination, custom graphics, and many other options are also available.

Twenty-two years ago, Eric J. Morris mused, “If only others could see Earth as the astronauts observe it, perhaps they would be similarly inspired.” Considering the success of Orbis World Globes, people of all ages are being inspired everyday to appreciate our wondrous planet, Earth.