And not only that, According to NASA, every day they receive “thousands” of requests from institutions, universities, creators, designers, film studios and even video game developers, who ask for documents with geographic and topographic details of the Moon. Tired of this, especially because it is a titanic task to solve each request, NASA decided to make a free public 3D map of the Moon, which is available to everyone.
How is it possible?
The document is called ‘CGI Moon Kit’, and is composed primarily of data collected by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which has been orbiting the Moon capturing topographic data from the satellite for just over 10 years.
Ernie Wright, an imaging scientist at NASA, was responsible for this project after interpreting all the images, combining the raw LRO data and the images to build an accurate 3D map of the Moon.
Wright explains that to create the map he had to use a 3D animation program and all the images collected by the LRO to date. The original idea was for it to be a scientific visualization and study resource for NASA, but after receiving several requests, he decided to make it available to the public, allowing anyone to access the LRO mission.
Conclusions
As mentioned, the ‘CGI Moon Kit’ is free to download and contains several types of data and images, such as a ‘displacement map’, which visualizes the topography through color, as well as an ‘elevation map’, both of which are designed for use in 3D rendering software. Anyone will be able to use this data to recreate an accurate surface of the Moon, with its actual craters, plateaus and peaks.
A great opportunity to appreciate the beautiful moon in a realistic way. 🌕