What is the Celestial Mapping System?

The Celestial Mapping System (CMS) is a software platform to generate virtual 3D globes for celestial bodies within our solar system. Various layers are built on top of the virtal globe to provide visualization of high resolution imagery, enable precise measurements, build analytical capabilities and a broad range of functionalities to assist planetary scientists and mission planners.

The present focus of CMS is on developing lunar mapping tool kits to provide features such as - 3D first person view with zoom and navigational capabilities, realistic terrain visualization based on LRO data, measurement tools, Apollo landing site annotations, stereoscopic view, elevation profiles, line of sight analysis and many more. The application is developed to provide situational and domain awareness on the Lunar surface, planning capabilities for equipment placements and traverse path optimization.


Current Capabilities


  • Accurate display of lunar imagery and terrain at 100mpp, and their geometric figures.​
  • Ability to accurately measure and profile terrain elevation.​
  • Accurate display of lunar place names of known locations.
  • Interactive 3D models of Apollo Astronauts and the vehicles remaining at the Apollo landing sites.
  • Georeferenced imagery of Apollo landing sites​​​.
  • Stereographic "3D" view​ of the lunar surface.​
  • High quality graticules​
  • Navigation capabilities; view controls, scalebar, and graticules.
  • 2D Minimap with click to navigate functionality
  • Server access to implement new datasets​ and high resolution map layers.
  • Moon Shading/Illumination with Sun Angle Calculations by user selected date and time
  • Import/Export for KML, CSV, and GeoTIFF
  • Ability to calculate and display lunar terrain intersections from a central viewpoint.
  • "Go To" decimal degree coordinates feature
  • Ability to add customizable named placemarks at a set of coordinates.
  • WMS Layer Manager
  • Searchable table of over 7000 named features that can be sorted and clicked in order to display placemarks and their annotations.

Works in Progress

  • Ability to simulate a “first person view” with situational and domain awareness of a vehicle traversing the lunar landscape​
  • Subsurface visualization & analysis.
  • Real time satellite tracker
  • Virtual Reality support
  • Lunar resource assessment 
  • Simulation of cislunar satellites.
  • Mission planning capabilities for equipment placements and traverse path optimization.
  • Ability to visualize map projections from other celestial bodies.


Video Demonstration 1




Video Demonstration 2




Meet the Team




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Dr. Parul Agrawal




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Mark Peterson




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Miguel Del Castillo





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Kaitlyn Dickinson



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Hari Iyer



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Geoffrey Norman



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Tyler Choi



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