Useful resources for space related projects.

[Infinite_Spaces.]

Free Space-Related Resources

A list of high-quality, royalty-free assets and data for space related projects.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Planet & Moon Maps

• NASA Visible Earth
A catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet.

• Celestia Motherlode
Extensive collection of NASA-based textures (8K+ resolutions for many planets).

• Planet Pixel Emporium
Artist-friendly color and bump maps for planets and moons.

• USGS Astrogeology Map Portal
Real scientific planetary datasets and DEMs for displacement mapping.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Nebulae, Stars & Space Backgrounds

• NASA Hubble Image Archive
Huge public-domain library of nebula and galaxy images.

• ESA/Hubble European Space Agency
Another great source of astrophotography, free for artistic use.

• NASA’s JWST Gallery
Free-to-use Webb Telescope imagery, perfect for high-res backdrops.

• Pixabay – Space & Nebula Images
Free CC0 nebulae, stars, and galaxy backgrounds.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

HDRIs & Environment Lighting

• Poly Haven (HDRIs)
Free 16K HDRIs; search for “space,” “stars,” or “night sky.” Perfect for lighting spacecraft renders.

• AmbientCG
Space HDRIs, procedural textures, and PBR maps (CC0 license).

__________________________________________________________________________________________

3D Models

• NASA 3D Resources
Hundreds of spacecraft, rover, and astronaut models (OBJ, FBX, STL).
All public domain and ideal for accurate space scenes.

• Sketchfab (NASA & ESA Official Accounts)
High-quality, physically accurate 3D models.

• Blend Swap – Space Category
Community-made ships, planets, and sci-fi assets under permissive licenses.

• Thingiverse – Space Models
Printable models that can also be cleaned up for rendering.

• NASA Lunar Rover Model - For Blender
High fidelity model (by me) made using the LRV Operations Handbook for references. CC0

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Scientific & Procedural Data Sources

• NASA Earth Observatory
Free global datasets (cloud cover, temperature, etc.) for procedural animation.

• NASA Eyes
Eyes on the Solar System.

• JPL Horizons
Orbital position data for accurate planetary animations in Blender.

• OpenSpace Project
Open-source visualization tool (and data) for astronomical realism.
Integrates well with Blender workflows.

• Starlink
Live Starlink, SpaceX, Kuiper & GPS Satellite Map.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Inspiration & References

• NASA Image and Video Library
Comprehensive and legally usable archive (public domain).

• ESA Space Images
Great for references and compositing backgrounds.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Orbital Mechanics & Physics Data

• NASA JPL Horizons
Precise real-time ephemerides and orbital elements for all major solar system bodies.
Useful for accurate planet, moon, and asteroid positioning.

• NASA SPICE Toolkit
Comprehensive system for spacecraft navigation, orbit tracking, and geometry data.
Supports multiple programming languages (C, Fortran, Python).

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Star & Galaxy Catalogs

• Hipparcos Star Catalog
118,000+ stars with accurate positions, magnitudes, and spectral types.

• NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive
Galactic surveys in infrared (WISE, 2MASS, Spitzer).

• Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS)
Vast data repository of astronomical catalogs, including SIMBAD, VizieR, and Aladin Lite API.

• Aladin Sky Atlas
Interactive sky viewer and downloadable datasets for visualization and simulation.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Planetary & Terrain Data

• NASA Planetary Data System (PDS)
Open-access archive of all planetary mission data (imagery, altimetry, atmospherics, etc.).

• NASA Mars Trek
Interactive Mars map viewer with exportable 3D terrain tiles.

• NASA Trek Portal
Access terrain maps for the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies — great for DEM extraction.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

APIs & Web Data Sources

• NASA Open APIs
Includes APIs for images, Mars weather, exoplanets, astronomy picture of the day (APOD), and more.

• NASA Exoplanet Archive
Searchable database of confirmed and candidate exoplanets with JSON and CSV export.

• Asterank API
Public asteroid data (orbital, physical, and economic information) via REST API.

• Celestrak Orbital Elements
TLE (Two-Line Element) sets for satellites — perfect for simulating real orbital paths.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Research & Technical References

• NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
Tons of aerospace and simulation-related technical papers and documents.

• arXiv.org (Astrophysics Section)
Open preprint archive for scientific papers on astrophysics and computational simulation.

• ESA GAIA Data Resources
Details and links for star catalogs, instruments, and data calibration.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Feel free to suggest useful links below.

 

[Infinite_Spaces.]

Reserving for future links since the post is pretty much maxed out.

Also, now Im sad at how many of my old NASA links no longer worked when i was compiling this.

 

[Kiwi Shark]

This is some really fantastic stuff! I've been digging around in these and still have a bunch more to check out. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Infinite_Spaces.]

Thanks, i hope people find them useful, my fave from over the years has been NASA Eyes, its really fun to see whats happening up there in real time.

 

[TheDirepack]

Reserving for future links since the post is pretty much maxed out.

Also, now Im sad at how many of my old NASA links no longer worked when i was compiling this.

Have you tried the Internet archive or one of the other archiving projects for those links they got a lot of them