Soon you can experience a spacewalk through virtual reality

Most of us will never be able to visit space, much less experience what it’s like to do a spacewalk. Even billionaires who can afford to pay for a trip beyond the atmosphere of our planet — or at least somewhere in that vicinity — can only look out from their spaceships. Episodes 3 and 4 of the immersive series Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, however, will give you a way to see what it’s like to float around in space. To make that happen, Felix & Paul Studios, one of the series’ creators, customized a virtual reality camera and attached it to the Canadarm2 robot to capture 3D, 360-degree scenes from outside the space station. 

Felix & Paul’s “Outer Space Camera” is a customized version of the commercially available Z-Cam V1 Pro. It has nine 4K sensors that can take 3D, 360-degree images at 8K resolution. The camera has also been modified to withstand harsh conditions, including UV radiation, temperature extremes and micrometeoroid impacts. The team attached it to the Canadarm2 robotic arm, which moves around the station’s external structure. 

Jonathan Woods, the series’ executive producer for Time Studios (one of the entities behind the project, along with NASA), said:

“Capturing the Earth in stereoscopic 3D, 360-degree format from space, outside the space station, has never been attempted until now. It’s beyond exciting and surreal to see this happening, knowing that the dream for this ambitious project started over five years ago in 2015.”

Episodes 3 and 4 will be available this fall and winter, respectively, in 360-degree mobile format on 5G-enabled devices through leading carriers around the world, including LGU+ in South Korea, KDDI in Japan, Orange in France and Deutsche Telekom in Germany. They will also be available as fully immersive VR experiences on the Oculus Store for the Rift, the Quest and Quest 2 headsets.