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LUNAR LANDING MAP SOFTWARE
LUNAR LANDING MAP FREE

Z factor vertical exaggeration – used to emphasise vertical features especially where they might be too small to identify relative to the horizontal scale.QGIS has a great GDAL hill shade option that allows you to import your raster (DEM) and output a shaded relief effect based on the parameters you set in the dialogue box. I chose an area of 1350km by 1000km at a scale of 1:1,470,000 and clipped from the original DEM before using it to create hill shade. Next, I located the lunar landing site of Apollo 11 and worked out the extent of the moon around it that I wanted to map. The DEM was projected using the Moon 2000 projection (IAU 2000:30100).

LUNAR LANDING MAP SOFTWARE

From this DEM we were able to create a terrain representation using Geographic Information Software (GIS).Īfter a few issues trying to download the DEM due to the United States Federal Government shutdown, I was eventually able to load it into a GIS, in this case QGIS. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) have a 60 metre per pixel DEM which was created by NASA’s LOLA Team and JAXA’s SELENE/Kaguya Team. The good news is there are lots of Digital Elevation Model’s or DEM’s of the Moon, which are 3D representations of a terrain’s surface.

The first step in creating a map of the Moon is to identify available data that represents the Moon’s topography. Eventually a site within the Sea of Tranquility was chosen.

LUNAR LANDING MAP FREE

The original requirement that the site be free of craters had to be relaxed.

A general slope of less than 2 degrees in the landing area.

Have good visibility during the landing approach, meaning that the Sun would be between 7 and 20 degrees behind the Landing Module.

Provide the Apollo spacecraft with a free-return trajectory, one that would allow it to coast around the Moon and safely return to Earth without requiring any engine firings should a problem arise on the way to the Moon.

Be reachable with a minimum amount of propellant.

Have approach paths free of large hills, tall cliffs or deep craters that might confuse the landing radar and cause it to issue incorrect readings.

The site needed to be smooth, with relatively few craters.

NASA’s Apollo Site Selection Board identified five potential landing sites for Apollo 11, and these were based on the following criteria: The moon landing was part of the Apollo programme, which started in 1966 and led to 11 astronuats, including Buzz Aldrin, to walk on the moon after Neil.Ī huge part of the mission was working out where to safely touch down. It was a monumental achievement for humanity. Six hours later Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the lunar surface. On 20 July 1969, at 20:17 GMT, Apollo 11 touched down on the moon.

This year marks the 50 th year anniversary of the moon landing, and to celebrate and mark the occasion the OS GeoDataViz team thought it would be fitting to create a map of Apollo 11’s lunar landing site in our unique map style.Find out how Paul Naylor approached the task.