The Virtual Moon Is Already Here
Hundreds of people have started “arriving” on the Moon every day
RAHWAY, NJ, December 19, 2006 – It is a challenge these days to find a company more innovative and visionary than Google. But a partnership between Lunar Explorer of Rahway, NJ and VirtueArts of Marina Del Rey California, may have just pulled that off. One day after Google and NASA issued a joint press release touting an agreement that, according to NASA director Michael Griffin will eventually: ” allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon…”, Lunar Explorer has announced that their Virtual Simulation of the Moon has already been shipping to people all over the world for a few weeks.
“There are hundreds of people arriving on the Moon on a daily basis right now!” said Manny Pimenta, President and founder of Lunar Explorer. What he means of course is that these people are all “arriving” on a Virtual Moon – a replica of the Moon that runs on an average home PC and which can be explored to one’s content. They give you the Moon and you get to be the Explorer: you get to decide where to go and what to see.
They have taken a global topography Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the Moon which was derived from data collected by the 1994 Clementine Lunar mission, and created a truly unique experience which, according to the developers, is the best and most realistic experience of being on the Moon that is possible based on the available information and the state of consumer PC technology today.
Dan Curry of Star Trek visual effects fame and a seven time Emmy award winner has seen Lunar Explorer and was quite impressed, even saying that Lunar Explorer has “Created a phenomenal opportunity for all of us to explore thee Moon. Terrific!”
“Our purpose in developing Lunar Explorer was to create personal experiences of space that are accessible to everyone, which is exactly what Director Michael Griffin expressed in yesterday’s press release.” said Pimenta. “We want to educate, involve, and inspire whole new generations of children about the amazing future that we can build together and how important Space Exploration is to creating that future.”
The Moon is the next logical step. It is on the Moon that we will establish our foothold or beach head for further Space Exploration ventures. The ultimate objective is to make it possible to live, work and play in Space and to use the bountiful resources of space for the benefit of all of us here on Earth. It is also about protecting and saving the only Earth that we know of; this most beautiful but fragile planet that requires us to be good custodians so that it can be enjoyed by all future generations.
Lunar Explorer did not stop at just giving you the “Magnificent desolation” of the Lunar terrain, as Buzz Aldrin called it when he stepped out onto the alien landscape. They have recreated all of the successful landing sites, manned and unmanned. You can visit all of the Apollo landing sites, or the unmanned American Surveyor sites, and even the seven Soviet Luna mission sites, from Luna 9 to Luna 21. If you have never seen the Russian Lunokhod Moon rovers, they are here. You can walk right up next to one and see it up close. Additionally, all man made objects on the Lunar surface can be examined up close and there are extensive text descriptions to explain each object in detail. One of the coolest features is that you can even go inside the Apollo LMs and see the complete interior of the ascent stage in astounding detail.
The richness of features in this amazing simulation is impressive. In addition to all that has been described before, Lunar Explorer gives you a beautifully rendered and accurate star field on which you can find all the familiar constellations. For those less familiar with the night sky, the constellations can be highlighted and named by a simple mouse click. Also, the Sun is user controllable. One can “click and drag” the sun to any position relative to the Moon, creating the phases of the Moon and Earth or creating dramatic sunrises or sunsets on the surface of the Moon. A Free-Camera mode allows you to fly along skimming the Lunar mountains and crater rims or go up high hundreds of miles above the surface. And we have not exhausted the features. There is much more packed into this impressive product: snapshots, an Earth that actually spins, the band of Milky Way stars, and on and on.
So, for those of you who just cannot wait to see what will come of the Google / NASA collaboration, you don’t really have to wait. Lunar Explorer is here now. You could be walking on the Moon within days of submitting your order at of ordering your very own personal Moon from www.LunarExplorer.com
See you on the Moon!
Lunar Explorer was created in 2004 with the objective of using state of the art simulation and virtual reality technology to make available new ways of experiencing space that could be enjoyed by everyone.
Lunar Explorer is based in Rahway, NJ which, incidentally, is the city where Carl Sagan’s High School Alma Matter is located.
Their first product which has been in the market for about two months now is a highly realistic and detailed simulation of the Earth’s entire Moon which can be interactively explored by the user. The user becomes the Explorer. Lunar Explorer has been presented at NASA Ames and, by special invitation from Dr. Charles Elachi, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, as well as to a NASA Headquarters manager’s group in Washington DC. The actual development of the Lunar Explorer Virtual Moon simulation was done by VirtuePlay based in Los Angeles, California. VirtuePlay has spent the last seven years creating a new software development architecture called RADE which is patent pending and which is sufficiently powerful to handle the very large data set required to render a model of the entire Moon and process that data in real time on an average home computer. The Lunar Explorer Moon Simulation would not be possible without the innovative and powerful new RADE technology.
Lunar Explorer and VirtuePlay share a common vision of using simulation technology exclusively for positive and edifying purposes. They both believe that education can be revolutionized by making it fun and engrossing through the medium of simulation. And they also hold to the central role that space exploration will play in our future and should be playing in our present.
Simulations such as Lunar Explorer provide opportunities to communicate to entire new generations the adventure and romance of space exploration, as well as the very practical and tangible benefits that can improve all of our lives.
Contact: Manny Pimenta
Tel. (732) 221 – 3392
Email: Manny@LunarExplorer.com
