Lunar Surface Flyovers

Foreword by David A. Kring

Image processing capabilities have improved dramatically since the Apollo-era. We can now stitch photographs together and drape them over terrain models to produce 3-dimensional scenes and digitally fly through them. This provides a spectacular view of the lunar surface and provides a new tool for scientists to study the geology of the lunar surface. It also provides a new tool for mission planners who need to select landing sites and design robotic and crew traverses. Below we provide a new atlas of lunar surface flyovers. Some of these are rendered from Lunar Orbiter and Apollo photography. However, camera and imaging systems on a new generation of orbiting spacecraft are quickly enhancing the community's capability to routinely render these flyovers. The first among this new generation of flyovers are provided by JAXA's Kaguya mission. As additional flyovers become available from that and later missions, our atlas of Lunar Surface Flyovers will grow.