Kaguya's digital elevation model as fine wall art

"Mare Orientale," is both title and subject of this 96.5 centimeter-wide, three-panel work carved in Sapele, a 'flesh-colored African wood.' Sirsalis is easy enough to pick out, at lower right, along with other highlights of west central Procellarum, and westward along the north east quadrant of Orientale. The work is said to have 'has an opalescent grain,' the highlights of which 'shimmer as the viewer passes by,' writes Craig Dorety, the artist who currently has this and similar works based on the Kaguya (SELENE-1) digital elevation model on exhibition until August 17 [Photographed by Susan Fowler].

Xeni Jardin

boingboing.net

San Francisco-based artist Craig Dorety has a series of carvings that "represent segments of the moon's surface as found in the topograhical data from JAXA's Kayuga mission."

"Painstaking attention is paid to the relationship of crater groups in the composition of each carving," Craig explains. "Areas of special interest have a natural balance of crater to sea; rough to gentle in texture."

Read the full article, HERE.

"A World, A Moon"

"A world, a moon," Stan Polito - Visions, Naples, Italy

EMCORE panels picked for LADEE

Albuquerque – EMCORE Corporation, a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the fiber optic and solar power markets, announced October 31 it's been awarded a contract by ASRC Research and Technology Solutions (ARTS) in Greenbelt, MD for design, manufacture and delivery of solar panels for NASA Ames Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission in 2013.

LADEE is a robotic mission designed to orbit the Moon. Its main objective is to study and characterize the lunar atmosphere, including fine dust particles suspended above the lunar surface. The spacecraft is currently scheduled to be launched in early 2013 aboard a Minotaur V vehicle from Wallops Island.

A total of 32 solar panels will be built for LADEE at EMCORE’s state-of–the-art manufacturing facilities located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.