The producers of a virtual reality series about the International Space Station (ISS) and its crew have built a 360-degree 3D camera that will generate the first VR experiences shot from out in space.
The 8K camera is mounted on an outside robotic arm arm that can extend the camera more than 50 feet away from the space station. It’s just now delivering the first shots it’s taken from the vacuum of space.
The camera was designed and engineered by the VR production house Felix & Paul Studios, which is using it to shoot upcoming episodes of its Emmy-winning VR seriesSpace Explorers: The ISS Experience. The studio has spent the last two years shooting the four-part series, which documents the lives and work of the ISS’s eight-member crew. The series was coproduced by Time Studios (the video arm ofTimemagazine) incollaboration with NASAand is available in VR on Oculus headsets.The production team used a smaller 360-degree camera to capture scenes inside the space station, but the most spectacular part of the astronauts’ work involves venturing outside. That’s where the “outer space camera” comes in. The camera can follow the astronauts during EVA (extravehicular activity).
“Space walks are an extremely important part of a NASA mission of the International Space Station, so we wanted to give the audience a taste of that as well,” says Felix & Paul cofounder and creative director Félix Lajeunesse. The camera can also be used to get high-quality, 360-degree footage of Earth, as well as shots of the space station from the outside.
Lajeunesse says you get something from shooting out in space that you just can’t get from shooting from inside the ISS. “You have a sense of floating outside the space station,” he tells me. “You get a sense of scale; in VR you can actually feel it. You can experience it how you would with your own eyes.”
Astronauts who have seen the Earth from space often report a unique sensation. It’s come to be known as the “overview effect.”“It’s this emotional and psychological experience of watching your world as a whole,” Lajeunesse says. “You see its extreme beauty, and its fragility, and you feel a deeper connection to your planet.”
Thanks to Felix & Paul’s technology, now those of us stuck here on Earth can experience some of the same sense of wonder.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.