Bringing The Space Station Perspective to Earth in VR!

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Only a few humans ever get to experience the awe-inspiring vantage point provided by the space station, but a new virtual reality (VR) experience, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience (ISS Experience), attempts to bring this perspective back to Earth for the rest of us.

Partnering with the ISS National Lab and Time, a team from Felix and Paul Studios launched a high quality 360 degree camera to space to help tell the story of science and life aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The project, currently in the process of being filmed by the station astronauts themselves, serves as an outreach project as well a technology demonstration, testing the limits of filming in the harsh environment of space.

The camera flew to the station on 16th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission in December 2018 along with a number of other scientific experiments.

Since then, the team has recorded many moments, including the SPHERES robots flying around the station (see below) , the growing and harvesting of vegetables, jam session among the astronauts, crew meals and the arrival of new astronauts.

So far, the footage coming back seems to be achieving the goal of immersing audiences in science and life aboard the space station. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams got the chance to watch some of the initial footage and says it was like I was back on the station.

While most of the filming has been completed, the biggest technical challenge is yet to come: capturing a spacewalk in virtual reality. The team expects to launch a new camera for spacewalk filming and begin production of spacewalk filming in 2020.

Learn more about ISS Experience here.

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