A visitor wearing virtual reality glasses at the RIA Novosti stand during the presentation of RIA Lab's VR projects as part of the Cosmonautics Week at the Moscow Planetarium.
The Moscow Planetarium hosted the premiere of the new Guiding Stars program and the presentation of the Lunar Station VR project. It is developed by the immersive journalism platform RIA.Lab.
As part of the exposition of the Urania Hall on the second floor of the Moscow Planetarium, the model of the lunar station has been operating for about a year. It was created on the basis of promising projects of the Russian lunar program. Now a stand has appeared next to it, equipped with VR-glasses (virtual reality glasses), putting on which, a visitor can find himself inside this station, and then take a walk on the surface of a natural satellite of the Earth.
According to the developers, the Lunar Station VR project allows a glimpse into 2038, when, in accordance with the Russian space program, a full-fledged complex of structures will be deployed on the Moon: living quarters for astronauts, a laboratory, a radiation shelter, an astrophysical observatory and other infrastructure elements. Immersed in virtual reality, the user examines the station from the inside, chooses a spacesuit and puts on it, then goes outside, sits in the rover and goes to the plateau, where mining is taking place. There he conducts a couple of experiments and admires the view of the Earth.
“This is a forecast-reconstruction. But the reconstruction is pretty accurate: this is most likely what the lunar base will look like in 2038. This is not just our imagination, everything was done on the basis of a large number of documents, both Russian and open documents from NASA, ”says Natalya Loseva, director for multimedia and new projects at the Rossiya Segodnya MIA, whose team developed the project. – In this reconstruction, we even took into account the physics of being on the Moon – the force of its attraction, the features of how a person hears a sound while in a spacesuit. In virtual reality, sound is very important. We tried to give the user an experience that he is unlikely to be able to get, unless he himself flies to the moon. “
The virtual reality stand will be open until April 18. It can be visited every day from 12:00 in the Urania Hall.
In addition, the Moscow Planetarium included a new program “Guiding Stars” in its repertoire. It was produced by the planetarium studio, displayed on the dome in the Great Star Hall and tells the audience about the secrets of astronavigation. In the story, together with an inquisitive boy, his grandmother watches the night sky and explains to her grandson how to recognize the most famous stars and constellations, why they are so called and how to navigate by them.
The Guiding Stars program will be screened before some of the full-dome films. Schedule – on the website of the Moscow Planetarium.
Visitors at the RIA Novosti stand during the presentation of RIA Lab's VR projects as part of the Cosmonautics Week at the Moscow Planetarium.
