Culture 3 min read

SpaceTime VR Lets you Orbit Earth With Real Satellites

If you can't spacewalk, VR feeds of objects in orbit is a pretty good stand-in. | Vadim Sadovski | Shutterstock

If you can't spacewalk, VR feeds of objects in orbit is a pretty good stand-in. | Vadim Sadovski | Shutterstock

Space might be out of reach for many of us, but SpaceTime VR might bring space into our homes. 

Despite Elon Musk’s best efforts to get to Mars and Branson’s work on Virgin Galactic orbital tourism, recreational space flight is not yet a thing.

In fact, SpaceX hasn’t followed up on its promise to ferry passengers around the moon either. Virgin Galactic also sits idle with a paltry “Virgin Galactic Future Astronaut Registration Form”.

What are all of we space-obsessed folks to do in this time of hardship? We turn to SpaceTime VR — a VR system that wants to bring space travel to you.

What is SpaceTime VR all about and how does it work?

image of SpaceTime VR for article SpaceTime VR Democratizes the Experience of Space with Satellites
SpaceTime VR from SpaceTime Enterprises

All About SpaceTime Enterprises

While their name sounds could also describe an evil Sci-Fi corporation with a strangehold on humanity’s future, SpaceTime Enterprises is a present-day company with noble aspirations. They also have high-tech solutions to democratize VR space travel.

REWIND and In-Space Missions Limited paired up for the project to bring real-time video to VR headsets. Their website says they are “leveling up mankind”.

REWIND CEO Sol Rogers described how SpaceTime will work to UploadVR:

“In addition, through bleeding-edge ground-processing, we will also be using the collected data to create the most current gigapixel map of the Earth’s surface…

This incredible asset will, initially, never be more than 11 hours old in its entirety as the satellite majestically passes over the earth’s surface, and this time will decrease dramatically as we add additional satellites.”

That’s right — SpaceTime VR will use real satellites to provide their real-time feed.

SpaceTime Enterprises wants to launch with one satellite orbiting Earth in the latter half of 2019. They will eventually add more satellites, offering a live feed of Earth at a wide-angle. The image will also feature relevant text related to what the user is watching.

Future Goals and Questions About VR

The website still says “coming soon”. But what comes before that is the phrase “democratize space” which seems to be the main goal.

“Given the unquestionable benefits, once the satellites are aloft in low Earth orbit, nothing will ever be the same…” said Doug Liddle, In-Space Missions CEO.

The project wants to support all of the major virtual reality headsets such as:

  • Oculus Rift and Oculus Go
  • HTC Vive
  • PSVR
  • Windows Mixed Reality Units

Despite not setting price points yet, the service won’t be free. So the cost of exploring space is whatever they decide to charge plus the cost of a VR headset.

Due to barriers to entry like cost or accessibility, VR may be limited to specific uses such as a teaching tool. But it also does amazing things like allowing people to explore Coco’s Land of the Dead.

Regardless of how both VR and space flight develop, SpaceTime Enterprises seems committed to its democratization goals.

If SpaceTime VR expands beyond Earth, which part of space would you explore first?

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Juliet Childers

Content Specialist and EDGY OG with a (mostly) healthy obsession with video games. She covers Industry buzz including VR/AR, content marketing, cybersecurity, AI, and many more.

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