NASA creates CGI tool for creating detailed 3D moon images

Thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter that has been orbiting the moon for ten years, NASA has a huge pool of photos and data about the lunar surface. A NASA engineer has now made this raw data accessible to 3D image creators.

The so-called CGI Moon Kit is the result of the efforts of Ernie Wright, a science visualizer at the Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. In fact, the kit consists of two highly detailed maps created from raw data from the 2009-launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

First, there’s a color map based on a pre-existing mosaic; this is a composite of 100,000 images taken with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Wide Angle Camera. In addition, there is an elevation map created using data from the lunar spacecraft’s Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter instrument. These are then merged in 3D animation software to create a detailed model of the moon, with each pixel containing information about its base color and surface height.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s narrow-angle camera has mapped most of the moon’s surface at a resolution of one meter per pixel or better. A graphical representation of this data is available online. Among other things, the topographical data of the moon is used in preparation for safer landing sites for the Artemis program. According to NASA’s program, humans should walk on the moon again by 2024.