SpaceVR wants to bring the universe to your living room. How? by deploying the world’s first virtual reality (VR) platform in space, of course! The company is one step closer to this goal, having signed an agreement with investor and partner NanoRacks to launch its first VR camera satellite, Overview 1, in 2017. Once the camera is in place, the company can begin helping people virtually realize their dream of being an astronaut.
SpaceVR has traveled a rocky road to get this celebratory point. The startup attempted to raise funds for its VR system via Kickstarter in 2015 but failed to secure the $500,000 necessary to reach its goal. Progress on the project was slowed while the company lowered its target to $100,000 in a second Kickstarter campaign and sought alternative funding sources. A $1.25 million seed round investment provided by Chinese investment firm Shanda Group jump started the project, allowing the team to move faster on important tasks such as developing the satellite camera software, preparing the content delivery channels and investing in the satellite communication networks.
SpaceVR originally planned to install a 12-camera system on the International Space Station, but the plans were modified when the new funding was made available to the company. The new plan calls for the deployment of the Overview 1 virtual reality camera satellite in low earth orbit. Instead of a 12-camera rig, the Overview 1 is a small cube satellite that has two high-resolution 4K sensors with wide field of view lenses. The Overview 1 satellite will be delivered to the International Space Station via the SpaceX CRS-12 Mission in 2017. NanoRack, which runs a commercial lab on the ISS, will receive the satellite and deploy the Overview 1 using its CubeSat deployer. Once it is deployed, SpaceVR will have full control over the satellite including both altitude and flight control.
The Overview 1 satellite will be equipped with 4K sensors capable of capturing high resolution, 3D video of our beautiful planet. This content will be compiled by SpaceVR into a 360-degree panorama and then served up to VR users worldwide. The immersive video will be accessible to a broad range of virtual reality device including the high-resolution StarVR, the consumer Oculus Rift, and even smartphones.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.