Many children when they are growing up and are asked what they want to be when they grow up will say they want to be a sports star, or perhaps a doctor or a fireman. One other more outlandish, certainly out of this world occupation that is often cited is that of an astronaut. Amazingly, as technology develops and companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic continue to work to make cheaper space flight and space tourism respectively a relative prospect. For many of our children in the years ahead this might actually become a realistic prospect.
For the overly large proportion of the rest of though, such times are out of reach. However, we can still all reach for the stars – or at least orbit – thanks to virtual reality (VR) and the latest release from Polish creative studio The House of Fables. They’ve teamed up with the European Space Agency (ESA) to bring you a new view of the world, one 400km above it in fact, with a tour of the International Space Station (ISS).
International Space Station Tour VR takes you around the only manned outpost outside of the Earth, with a combination of high-quality 360 degree photos as well as video recorded by Italian astronaut and ISS resident Samantha Cristoforetti. Taking in the eight modules on the station from America, Europe, Japan and Russia
First released on Windows Mixed Reality, you can now download International Space Station Tour VR on Steam, the Oculus Store, Google Play, the Windows Store and also Viveport.
“We first released ISS Tour VR on Windows Mixed Reality and are proud to now introduce it to new platforms. Making the app available on HTC Vive, Oculus, Google Cardboard, Google Daydream, Viveport and doing so completely for free, means that more people will get the chance to visit places they’d never be able to visit otherwise, and experience things that normally only a few of us can experience, like visiting the ISS.” Explained Adam Robaszyński-Janiec, The House of Fables’ CEO.
You can see a preview trailer for the experience below. For more 360 degree news and videos check out VRFocus’ thrice weekly morning segment Life in 360°, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.