Apollo 11 astronauts on the moon in 1969. Image via NASA
Irish start-up Immersive VR Education want to give people the experience of one of the greatest moments in human history by crowdfunding a project to develop a virtual reality (VR) Apollo 11 mission.
Using the Oculus Rift VR headset, the team are hoping to raise €30,000 that will re-create the scene of one of mankind’s greatest achievements with the help of archive film, images and audio 46 years ago.
However, rather than just offer a cheap thrill and short demo of the event, the company want to use it as an educational experience that would far exceed what could be achieved by just reading a book or watching a video.
For children and adults experiencing the simulation, they will be able to see accurate models of all the different components of the Saturn V rocket including its command module, launch tower, lunar lander with the entire journey from take-off to splashdown included.
So far, the team have raised €3,500 of its €30,000 target with a prototype demo already released by Immersive VR Education with its Kickstarter page saying of its eventual goal, “Neil [Armstrong] took One Giant Leap back in 1969 and we are asking if you can take One Small Step today and back this project.”
If this is achieved, the demo will be released as a standalone app that will vastly expand upon the current prototype demo that reviewers are saying is a promising work in progress.
