Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Fly Me to the Moon


The movie First Man, about the first ever manned landing on the moon, has reignited interest in our lunar neighbor. If you are interested in following Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon then you could take your first tentative footsteps by exploring NASA's Moon Trek.

Moon Trek is an interactive map of the moon created by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and Caltech. The map allows you to explore the named features of the moon, learn about lunar exploration and access current research about our nearest neighbor. The map also includes a 3D globe of the moon and the ability to create your own fly-overs of the lunar surface.

Moon Trek has a number of different layers which can be added to the lunar map. These layers include imagery and observations from NASA's missions to the moon. Moon Trek also includes a number of different tools which allow you to measure distances on the map and create elevation plots. You can also use Moon Trek with VR headsets to take a virtual tour of the moon and download data to 3D print selected areas of the moon's surface.

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