Moon Made From NASA Images Lights Up At New York Comic Con

Mixed in with all the fantasy at New York Comic Con is a big dose of reality, in the form of a giant replica of the moon made using details from NASA about the lunar surface.

Actors Rosario Dawson and LeVar Burton helped light up the spherical piece of artwork, dubbed “Museum of the Moon,” in a dark room on Thursday. They were kicking off an exhibit at the Classic Car Club on 12th Avenue, behind the Javits Center where Comic Con is taking place. The exhibit, “Museum of Artemis: Life on the Moon,” is a free installment that audiobook company Audible erected to celebrate the release of Artemis. The book is described as a heist story that takes place in a city on the moon and was written by Andy Weir, who wrote The Martian. Artemis is due out Nov. 14.

Dawson, known for her roles in the Netflix Defenders series, “Men in Black II” and “Rent,” is the voice of the audiobook for Artemis and read a passage from the book during the event. As any space drama should, it included a proclamation of “Negative!” and the words, “Don’t wait for me,” as well as a description of what it’s like to hop around in the moon’s lesser gravity. When it was finished, Dawson concluded with her own “dun dun dun.”

Visitors to the exhibit from Friday to Sunday can gaze up at the 23-foot moon, devised by the British artist Luke Jerram.

The moon is a touring art installment that is lit from the inside and uses NASA imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to reproduce the look of the moon’s surface.

The LRO launched in 2009. Its key functions include taking temperature readings of the moon’s surface throughout the day and night and measuring the amount of light it reflects back into space. During the total solar eclipse in August, as the moon was blocking out the sun for parts of the Earth, the LRO took a photo of the moon’s shadow swinging across its host planet.

According to the artwork’s description, the replica is 500,000 times smaller than the real thing, meaning each centimeter of its surface represents 5 kilometers on the moon’s surface.

It has already traveled to many locations across Europe and Asia.

“From the beginning of human history, the moon has acted as a ‘cultural mirror’ to our beliefs, understanding and ways of seeing,” the artwork’s website explains. “Over the centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and as a planet. It has been used as a timekeeper, calendar and to aid nighttime navigation. Throughout history the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians the world over. The ethereal blue light cast by a full moon, the delicate crescent following the setting sun, or the mysterious dark side of the moon has evoked passion and exploration. Different cultures around the world have their own historical, cultural, scientific and religious relationships to the moon.”

The glowing moon is accompanied by special music, from composer Dan Jones, to set the mood.

Later this month, the moon is scheduled to be in Italy, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Slovakia.

Those who visit the exhibit will also see a spacesuit and a replica of the camera Neil Armstrong used to document his and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the moon in 1969.

In an interview from Audible about the upcoming book for which the exhibit is dedicated, Weir says the story takes place later in this century with a female protagonist — “a small-time criminal, and she gets in way over her head.”

“Artemis is based on the presumption that commercial space travel, and competition within that industry, will drive the cost … down low enough that middle-class people can afford a trip to space,” the author said in the interview. “Once that becomes a reality, lunar tourism becomes a viable business model. And that’s the economic foundation of ‘Artemis.’”

According to Weir, he laid out the lunar city Artemis so meticulously that he has a map of it.

“Museum of Artemis: Life on the Moon” is open at 408 12th Ave. on Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 4 p.m.