NASA Shares a 3D Map of the Moon

One of NASA’s science visualizers interpreted these images, combined the LRO’s raw data and images to construct an accurate 3D map of the moon. The team wants to make data more accessible to 3D artists. Artists and designers can use this data for whatever they want such as video games and other projects.

"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," said Ernie Wright, the scientist behind the project. 

The team used an animation tool and NASA’s lunar reconnaissance orbiter, a spacecraft that has been in orbit around the moon for more than a decade. Originally, the project was meant as a resource for NASA’s scientific visualization studio but then they decided to make it available to the public.

The orbiter is equipped with a camera that is a scanner building an image line-by-line, featuring a laser altimeter 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 bounce back to the spacecraft," states the press release. "LOLA then measures the nanoseconds it takes for the beam to return as a means of reading the moon’s topography."

You can learn more about the project here.