Tabula Caelum: The First Roads in Space

CEO Wisdom Podcast

This video features an interview with Megan Eskey, a former NASA computer engineer who founded a startup called Reloquence in her retirement. She is pioneering the concept of mapping roads on the Moon and Mars (0:51) to support future space development, mining, and human exploration.

Key highlights from the discussion:

• The Concept: Eskey is creating a "planetary address framework" by identifying point locations on the Moon and Mars using "low-slope routes" and "quadrangles" (1:43). This system serves as a foundational digital map for autonomous rovers, allowing them to navigate efficiently as they leave behind a network of rover tracks, or what she is calling planetary roads (9:24).

• NASA Background: With nearly 30 years at NASA, Eskey worked on aeronautical engineering, AI research (including explanation-based learning), and web services (2:17-3:12). Her experience with open government data inspired her to leverage publicly available NASA data to create these maps (10:23).

• Business Strategy: Because the project is largely based on open data, the entry cost is low compared to traditional space hardware startups (10:49). Her monetization strategy focuses on licensing these realistic digital maps to gaming companies for use in space-themed video games, helping to establish her maps as a de facto industry standard (15:45-16:43).

• Vision for the Future: Eskey emphasizes the need for a co-founder—a younger, experienced serial entrepreneur—to take over the business operations, as she identifies more as an innovator than a traditional startup CEO (4:40, 22:07).

We are currently seeking an exceptional client to commission a map of The First Roads on Mars.

We have donated digital and first print copies of our lunar maps to two of the largest archives in the US, the American Geographical Society Library at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Stanford University’s Branner Earth Sciences Library and David Rumsey Map Collection. The images above document the pedigree of the first printing of our map charting the First Roads on the Moon, including exhibits at events such as the North American Cartographic Information Society’s annual meeting in 2025.

Ask me about my personal collection of vintage space memorabilia. I have eight binders going back to the early days of NASA. One is for Mercury/Gemini, one for Apollo/Skylab, one for my own era (Shuttle/ISS), and the rest are organized by topics including maps, visitors, Mars, postcards/photos, and astronomy.

I have a separate binder for my Sally Ride collection, and another one documenting my progress with the planetary address framework. I have many oversized items including a presentation mat with a flown patch from STS-72. I have several signed and authenticated photos/documents, but my prized possession may be nine panoramas from the Mars Viking 1 and 2 landers in the original envelope from NASA. Our online gallery of space memorabilia is a continually evolving work in progress.

Visit our online shop to purchase greeting cards, posters, canvas art and more. We have included several historical planetary maps below that provided inspiration. Two of our maps were featured at Lunar Legacies, a space-themed auction, in January 2026. If you missed them this time, you can try again at the next auction.

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Our work was first presented at the Interplanetary Infrastructure session at the 2024 International Space Development Conference (ISDC). Slides are available on SlideShare and the recorded talk is available on YouTube.