Since their appearance in the twilight of the 14th century, globes have simultaneously acted as scientific tools, collectibles, and decorative elements for the easy bourgeois office and mahogany-fringed Airbnb apartment. It wasn’t, however, until April of 2016 that the moon was given a proper globe from a topographical point of view. That is the goal of the MOON project, led by French artist Oscar Lhermitte and Kudu studio, whose crowdfunding campaign launched yesterday on Kickstarter.
“This project is a personal initiative,” explains Lhermitte to The Creators Project. “I started working on it when I saw the photos taken during NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission four years ago.” Alongside its many other projects, the artist has approached the Institute of Planetary Research in order to collect enough data to make the lunar globe as accurate as possible.
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It took a dozen prototypes for Lhermitte complete his mission. The final object is 3D-printed to a scale 1:20,000,000 the size of the actual moon, replicating each of its mountains and craters. The globe is complemented by a LED ring that represents the sun, as well as a mini-computer designed by Kudu studio that has the same memory as the Apollo Guidance Computer used by Neil Armstrong’s crew during the 1969 moon landing.
“If I really wanted to make an accurate globe, I had to create a light source that mimics that of the sun to the moon,” says Lhermitte. Only with the light that we can see the moon in all its splendor. Only at the proper angle can light help us recognize each crater. “Kudu Studio is thus responsible for creating a computer capable of reproducing the movement of the moon with the sun.”
To support the project, click here, and find more photos below.
See more of Oscar Lhermitte’s work on his website.
This article originally appeared on The Creators Project France.
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