View Our World Through the Eyes of a Stormtrooper

"Space Station Earth" is a digital map that turns our entire planet into a cold and otherworldly spaceship. Our terrestrial home transforms into George Lucas' scourge of the Galaxy—the dreaded Death Star.

The map's designer Eleanor Lutz created this custom piece of space cartography using Mapbox Studio, a online service that lets users and companies build their own maps. Fast Company points out that this service is often used by big companies, such as Facebook or Foursquare, to create maps to fit their brand. Instead, Lutz says she was inspired by her own love of science fiction, particularly from genre staples like The Matrix, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Craft.

But CityLab's John Metcalfe identifies the map's uncanny resemblance to the Galactic Empire's technological terror. Lutz fosters this Death Star vibe by removing all bodies of water and replacing them with a standard space backdrop. All major cities were replaced with a "colonies" moniker and oversized icons resemble the onboard lights of a planet-sized space station.

With the estimated cost of building our own Death Star hovering around the $852 quadrillion mark, this will probably be one of few Earth-inspired Death Stars we ever see—at least in this galaxy anyway.

Gizmoto Link to Story

The link to the actual virtual globe is here: Link to World Map

I found this to be really interesting, just another way of looking at our world.
The stylization is very unique and abstract but in a way more desrcript. I found myself going all the way to my front door on it even though it lacks in fine detail.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

AB

Its cool i like the originality. Good work

a reply to: Therealjohndoe

Welcome aboard!
(I see it's your first post)

Lurker, trans or newb?
(I don't like using the word 'newb' it sounds derogatory, but it's easy to type)

a reply to: AnteBellum

If you squint hard enough you can see the thermal exhaust ports-which is easy to do if you've nailed womp rats in your T-16 back home.

That image certainly does have have a striking resemblance to the death star, despite the lack of turbolasers batteries or TIE fighters.

But I digress. I'm a star wars fan and once I start talking about it i find it hard to stop. Nice post.

I like it. I can actually find places in that that I can't in googles real world map. lol

some places in the US are lost in the detail, here they pop out.

all they need now is a mode when you zoom right in you see robots rolling down the road.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

I'm a star wars fan and once I start talking about it i find it hard to stop.

I can fix that.