After fundraising on IndieGoGo back in the summer, AstroReality is taking its ridiculously realistic model Moons to CES. Fabricated with the help of industrial 3D printers, the tiny celestial bodies use AR to educate and inspire.
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Sadly, a personal trip to the moon is the unlikeliest of unlikely things to happen in this lifetime. Perhaps unless you have the personal resources of the rocket-touting Elon Musk (though it seems he’s content to simply shuttle his cars off to Mars, instead).
Fortunately, at a fraction of the expense of actually blasting off into space, AstroReality has created a painstakingly detailed model of the Moon. Big enough to nestle in your palm, these hand-painted celestial beings boast a pretty neat trick in AR functionality.
Using AstroReality’s accompanying smartphone app, the LUNAR becomes an interactive encyclopaedia of the Moon’s features and humanity’s missions to explore it.
The company missed a trick not calling it LunAR, but hey ho. You can see it in action in the video below.
3D Printing the Moon
Mass producing 1:43,453,500 scale models of the Moon is no small feat. To help pack in as much detail as possible AstroReality turned to SLA 3D printing tech to create casts based on data captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Using a 3D Systems ProJet 7000 HD, the model Moon is printed at a mighty fine 0.05mm layer height. This 3D print of the Moon is then used to create a negative mold, into which a polyresin is poured, resulting in the final physical product.
Except, that’s not quite all. Each LUNAR model is then hand painted to bring out the detail in every topographical feature, from oceans and lakes to the craters and mountains.
AstroReality will take the LUNAR to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, from January 9 – 12. If you happen to be there, you can find them in the North Hall, booth 9208.
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