Hi, per my subject line, has anyone ever taken photos of a 3D sphere (e.g., a tennis ball, watermelon, mineral sphere, or other) and translated those surface images into a 2D equirectangular (or Mercator) map for editing in Photoshop?

I'm basically trying to do with small spherical objects what NASA has done with some of its Mars and lunar orbiters, where it shoots the entire planet's surface from a distance, then combines those images to get a 2D map. Kind of like this.

Thank you!