(Pointools: London) -- Software from Pointools is being used to create 3-D walk-through models to explore the viability of laser scanning on the moon and Mars. Researchers from Navajo Technical College, together with representatives from NASA and New Mexico Tech, laser scanned a volcanic formation in New Mexico, gathering 240 million individual measurements. These were processed using Pointools software to create an immersive and interactive 3-D computer model from which NASA scientists can assess the potential of laser scanning for future missions.

The survey party, using a FARO LS 120 laser scanner, mapped the Four Windows Cave lava tube at El Malpais National Monument in New Mexico, collecting eight individual scans, each composed of 30 million points. The project was designed to understand the viability of laser scanning lava tubes and other formations on the moon and Mars, and to provide examples of the type of data laser scanning could collect and the information that could be interpreted from the laser mapping. 

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