Flying to the Moon a bit out of your budget? No worries, you can still experience our planetary neighbor with MOON, the first 1/20 million replica that features all the craters, elevation and ridges in accurate 3D. If you’re wondering how accurate it is to the real thing, the extremely detailed lunar globe was made using NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter topographic data combined with electronic and mechanical engineering, and careful mold making.
In addition to its accurate 3D surface, what makes MOON unlike other lunar globes is its motorized ring of LEDs that orbits and recreates lunar phases as seen from Earth. Not only will you be able to see all the craters, elevations and ridges of the Moon up close during its respective lunar phase, you’ll also see the “dark side of the Moon” not visible from our planet.
MOON comes in three different modes of your choosing. In manual mode you can rotate the sun light and set the lunar phase you’d like to see. Live mode goes according to the actual lunar phase happening at the moment. A full rotation, also known as a lunar synodic month, takes approximately 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes and 2.80 seconds. Can’t wait that long? Demo mode allows you to observe a complete synodic month in just 30 seconds.
MOON’s mold was 3D-printed using data from the Institute of Planetary Research, the German Aerospace Center working on the NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission. The globe, made with a pigmented polyurethane resin, is offered in two different sizes – 173mm (6.8 inches) and 300mm (11.8 inches). At the base of the globe is a specially built and coded computer that is perfectly synced with the actual position of the Moon and Sun.
Interested? Fly over to MOON’s Kickstarter page, where the team is well above their goal of $35,589. You can expect to land on the moon as early as November 2016.