🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the current absence of a standardized three-dimensional geospatial data framework capable of supporting sustainable space activities and the enforcement of international regulations, particularly in representing physical objects and their associated logical spaces—such as heritage protection zones—on extraterrestrial surfaces. To bridge this gap, the work proposes the first extraterrestrial 3D conceptual model tailored for the Moon and Mars, innovatively extending the CityJSON standard to enable unified modeling of both physical entities and logical spatial constructs. The project further develops a standardized 3D CityJSON dataset encompassing lunar landing sites and representative Martian regions, demonstrating the approach’s feasibility and potential to underpin planetary spatial data infrastructures, ensure compliance with international space law, and support the preservation of off-Earth heritage.
📝 Abstract
Establishing frameworks for promoting the realization of various activities on celestial bodies sustainably is of great significance for different contexts, such as preserving the scientific evidence and space heritage. Therefore, this research first proposes a conceptual model that covers the different types of features, attributes, and relationships between them to comprehensively delineate the surface objects and related logical spaces on celestial bodies. It then implements this conceptual model as a CityJSON extension in such a way that allows for creating the three-dimensional (3D) geodatasets that represent these objects and spaces in a standardized manner. Moreover, the usefulness of this study is demonstrated through creating CityJSON datasets that include 3D models of exemplary surface objects from Moon and Mars, such as a historical landing site and related logical spaces, such as exclusion zones for protecting this site. The results of the current study show that there is a strong potential for forming 3D geodatasets on celestial bodies that can provide a notable foundation for the technical implementation of international agreements and legal frameworks. This work also contributes to the design of planetary spatial data infrastructures (PSDI) by incorporating the third dimension.