With the new PlotOptiX release we revisited the Moon model. Improved memory model allowed for rendering the moonscape posters at much higher level of details. Enjoy the unearthly sights! :)
All posters are ray-traced in Python & PlotOptiX. Feel free to try running scripts on your own: code samples are on GitHub, with a more detailed description in the story.
Credits:
1. Natural colors of the Moon surface: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC)
2. Surface elevation model: Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA), 118m resolution data by LOLA Science Team
3. Star map in the background: NASA
Contact us at rnd.team for limited & signed (edition of 5) 50x70cm printed posters.
1. The Moon. Panorama over the Mare Crisium (basin in the upper part of images), Mare Fecunditatis (central), and Mare Nectaris (in the lower part, close to the left edge).
2. Mare Orientale. It is one of the largest lunar craters. The central flat plain structure is about 900km across. Though, it is located almost on the edge of the disc visible from an Earthbound perspective and difficult to observe.
*** Shown at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, 2021 ***
3. Vallis Shröteri. A sinuous rille on the Aristarchus plateau on the near side of the Moon. It is believed to originate from volcanic activity. The cancelled Apollo 18 mission was considering a landing site in this location back in 1972. Now, Intuitive Machines announced their landing attempt in October 2021 in Vallis Schröteri, using a lander launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
4. Mare Moscoviense. One of the very few maria on the far side of the Moon, invisible from an Earthbound perspective. The names of lunar maria generally call up psychic states. The name of this mare, proposed after Luna 3 returned first images of the region, was only accepted by the International Astronomical Union with the justification that Moscow is a state of mind.
5. Apennines. The mountain range (the dark violet arc in the right/central part) and the Copernicus crater (the big one in the lower left corner) are among the most popular and known landscapes on the Moon. Several Apollo and Surveyor missions have landed in this area. While you may be familiar with the natural colors of the Moon surface, the artificial palette of purple, orange and yellowish shades gives to it unusual look of an abstract painting.
6. Sinus Iridum. A plain of basaltic lava that fills a large impact crater (the arc called Montes Jura) on the visible side of the Moon. The diameter of this structure is about 250km. Wrinkes visible here all over the maria areas can extend for up to several hundred kilometers. They formed when the lava cooled and contracted after flooding the maria basins.
The area is a popular target for astrophotography and observations for its beauty.
7. The Moon with maria Fecunditatis and Nectaris in front of the view.
