NASA goddard creates CGI Moon kit as a Form of Visual Storytelling

A new NASA out-of-this-world animation allows humanity to experience their closest galactic neighbor as never before through an online “CGI Moon kit.”

Smartphones have allowed millions to become amateur photographers, but capturing the perfect picture can still be difficult under certain conditions. So, imagine trying to capture an image of a 3D object while simultaneously moving at almost a mile per second. The light source over 93 million miles away and the entire surface must also be accurately mapped topographically down to a level of 100 feet.

These are the challenging conditions NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has overcome for the 10 years – and counting – orbiting Earth’s Moon.

Using data and imagery from LRO, Ernie Wright brings the Moon to life in unprecedented detail. Wright is a science visualizer who works at the Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He created the online CGI Moon kit.

The purpose of the CGI Moon kit is to make NASA’s data more accessible to 3-D artists, the space agency's website reports.

Wright initially created the 3D Moon map as a Scientific Visualization Studio (SVS) resource, but after receiving multiple requests for the data used to create his Moon visualizations, he decided to share his creation as a way for artists to connect with the LRO mission.

“[The Moon kit] will bring the LRO data within reach of lots of other artists who want to do the kinds of things that I do,” Wright said.

One of the primary goals for the LRO is to accurately map the topography of the Moon to prepare for safer landing to sights of interest for the Artemis program. Two gadgets on this spacecraft have been key components: The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA). 

LROC works like a scanner, building an image line-by-line, using the motion of the spacecraft over the lunar surface to build an image. LOLA uses laser pulses to detect the dimensions of the Moon. A single laser pulse is sent down and divided into five separate beams. The pulses reach the Moon’s surface and bounces back to the spacecraft. LOLA then measures the nanoseconds it takes for the beam to return as a means of reading the Moon’s topography. If a beam comes back quickly, LOLA can tell that the landscape has a high elevation. If the beam comes back weaker, the surface is rough and power from the beam was scattered.

After collecting a set amount of data, the spacecraft sends the bits and bytes of information to