SpaceVR : Step into Space by SpaceVR — Kickstarter

Support this project on Kickstarter : Kickstarter : https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035872323/spacevr-step-into-space Creator : SpaceVR Location : San Francisco, CA Contact : http://www.spacevr.co/ Giving everyone the opportunity to explore space by putting a virtual reality camera on the International Space Station! About this project Being in space and looking down at the earth, astronauts are hit with an astounding reality: our planet is a tiny, fragile ball of life, “hanging in the void", shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere. It’s a phenomenon known as the Overview Effect. Space is the final frontier, and everybody should have a chance to be a part of exploring it and, in turn, being influenced by it—to experience the Overview Effect. There’s a lot of excitement about exploring space by the people, for the people, and we can't do it without you. Together we can make the universe accessible to everyone, inspire the next generation of explorers and get people excited about STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) fields. The more supporters we have, the more cool virtual reality experiences we’ll be able to capture in space. And when we get there, you won’t just be a bystander to history; you’ll feel like an active participant, standing side by side with the astronauts. We will all be explorers together. OVERVIEW ONE Overview One is the virtual reality camera that we are sending to the Cupola module, the observation deck of the International Space Station (ISS), to capture immersive virtual reality video – giving you the chance to have the same experience the astronauts get. Our camera is being developed using space heritage parts (camera CCD sensor and batteries) to get it up and running as quickly, cheaply and efficiently as possible. We have reduced project risk by focusing our attention on solving the human and computer interface problems, since astronaut time is limited. Overview One Mark III by SpaceVR on Sketchfab Watch VR content we've already collected with the Overview One prototype here! This campaign is about more than putting a virtual reality camera in space; it’s about giving you the chance to explore space and your role in it. This is bigger than a website, an app or being just another VR company – we are a movement. PLAN Pioneering a whole new avenue of space exploration can be time and cost intensive. In order to ensure our 360 camera gets to the ISS, we’ve gone back to the drawing board and simplified the mission parameters. $100K covers flight certification, launch costs, and 2D 16K resolution footage that will be physically down-massed (returned from space) to Earth 2x per year. This engineering proof of concept system validates that we can capture content on the ISS from an operational and space certification standpoint using a 1U payload volume with four cameras and zero onboard processing power. The system specifications are as follows: 2D 16K resolution footage: Our original 12-camera system was designed to capture 24K footage. This 4-camera system will capture at a resolution of 16K, which still makes our content “future-proof” (current headsets only support up to 4K resolution content). SD Card Storage: This scaled down version of the camera will not have a built in CPU. Instead, footage will be captured and stored on SD cards, then later brought back to Earth (instead of compressing and downlinking the footage using ISS communication bandwidth). 1U Payload Volume: By reducing the number of cameras and removing the single board computer communicating through 3 USB hubs to a 1 TB solid state drive, we can package all the electronics into this smaller 1000 cubic centimeter (61 cubic inches) volume. All the Kickstarter funds will go directly to launching our hardware to the International Space Station through NanoRacks. Our end goal is to launch a 3D, 360 camera to the ISS to capture the best virtual reality content possible. We set the goal at the minimum viable product level so that we could launch to the ISS and start capturing spherical 2D content, ensuring that the project has a place to start and can grow from there. In the event that we don't reach enough funding to send a 3D, 360 camera, we will seek traditional outside investment to ensure that the best possible camera system is used long term. $100K gets us into orbit, but if we meet our stretch goals we can do even more! Additional technical details will be released in updates as we get closer to the goals above. PROJECTED TIMELINE This is the projected timeline for the development and deployment of the Overview One camera. As with any space mission, there may be changes to the schedule as the project progresses -- we will keep you updated of these changes if they occur.