The Moon Atlas

THE MOON WE KNOW

We were torn about the moon initially. We knew we wanted it in the atlas collection but it’s just so… common, so near, so close to home. Mars is exciting, Mercury is novel, the Moon? I can open my blinds and see the Moon almost whenever I want. It’s been a fixture in our species collective conscious since time immemorial. Even its most prominent features like mares and craters, many of which are visible to the naked eye, are household concepts. The Moon is what we would like Mars to be - familiar.

THE ARGUMENT FOR THE MOON

When we thought critically about space exploration and colonization of our solar system and our thoughts began to shift. Vasco da Gama didn’t attempt to cross the Atlantic in search of India before he learned how to sail across the Tagus Estuary. So it follows that any private or public enterprise is going to master sailing to the moon before sailing to Mars. The Moon will be something of a proving ground for astronauts, technology, and the organization of human capital. This is supported by the fact that since the famous “space race” era of the Soviet Union and the United States, many other countries have vied for the honor of exploring the lunar surface. China has landed a spacecraft on the Moon. Japan intends to put a man on the moon before 2030. India, Israel, Japan have all sent unmanned probes. “The moon is practically cosmopolitan”, Eian mentioned while showing me all the landing sites one day while going over a prototype Moon Atlas.

Each one of these successes needed a map or a surface analysis of some sort. The Moon has been mapped for decades in amazing detail. We don’t pretend to be adding to the Lunar community in any way except with a very approachable, attractive, and easy-to-use reference in both book and web form. Another set of tools to add to the collective knowledge of the lunar surface. We’re looking forward to releasing The Moon Atlas in 2021 and The Mercury Atlas shortly thereafter.