SCIENCEWORKS LOOKS TO THE MOON THIS SUMMER
New multi-player VR experience Earthlight: Lunar Hub will open alongside stunning Museum of the Moon installation on 1 December
Museum of the Moon installed at the Cork Midsummer Festival last year. Source: Museum of the Moon
This summer, Scienceworks is over the moon to feature two incredible lunar experiences: Opaque Space’s new Earthlight: Lunar Hub virtual reality experience and Museum of the Moon, an astronomical seven metre sculpture of the moon.
Inspired by their recent collaboration with NASA, building astronaut training simulations, Melbourne-based outfit Opaque Space have created a truly unforgettable VR experience halfway between gaming and space exploration. Six players collaborate live on-site to journey through a lunar craft and undertake a moonwalk. All within a painstakingly realistic moon environment. Earthlight: Lunar Hub was recently recognised at the Australian Game Developer Awards as “a game beyond entertainment”.
Available to the public for the first time, the 40-minute experience, featuring 20 minutes in-game, uses headsets and backpack PCs, allowing players to move freely around the 7x10m play space. Earthlight: Lunar Hub takes standard virtual reality to the next level.
Jonathan Shearer, General Manager of Scienceworks said the experience follows a highly successful run at Scienceworks of Earthlight: Spacewalk; the award-winning first iteration of the Earthlight series. Shearer said, “Earthlight: Lunar Hub is one small step for visitors, but one giant leap in the virtual reality arena. The graphics are so highly realistic, I felt like I really was walking on the moon. Visitors are going to be awe-struck by this experience,” Shearer said.
Opaque Space’s Mitchell Manganaro said of this collaboration, “We want to bring space to everyone, so we’re thrilled to be able to do that again at Scienceworks this summer with the first public deployment of Lunar Hub. People have found this complete immersion in the moon environment an emotionally moving experience, and it’s wonderful to see the inspiring effect it has.”
Vision from inside Earthlight: Lunar Hub which simulates the experience of walking on the moon. Credit: Opaque Space
After the spine-tingling experience of walking on the moon, visitors can immerse themselves in a more contemplative experience involving this alluring celestial body.
Museum of the Moon is a luminousr sculpture of the moon, seven-metre diameter, developed by UK artist, Luke Jerram. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, Jerram has painstakingly re-created the shape and surface of the moon utilising NASA-produced high-resolution imagery of the moon’s surface. Each centimetre of the internally-lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the genuine moon’s surface.
Launched in 2016, the work has been displayed in a range of locations across the globe, and in a variety of contexts, with the meaning of the installation for audiences ever-evolving. As it travels it gathers personal responses, stories and musical compositions, and has highlighted the latest in moon science. Scienceworks will add to this collection by presenting specially-developed audio content featuring Museums Victoria’s Senior Curator of Astronomy, Dr Tanya Hill.
Visitors to Scienceworks are also encouraged to take a Collection Store tour which takes them into the store housing historical treasures stacked on shelves that reach to the roof. Visitors can journey further into the reaches of space with a Planetarium show, or visit the science museum’s latest permanent exhibition Beyond Perception: Seeing the Unseen.
Museum of the Moon & Earthlight: Lunar Hub
1 December – 28 April
Scienceworks, 2 Booker St, Spotswood
Museum of the Moon: Free with Scienceworks entry
Earthlight: Lunar Hub: Adults $22 + Scienceworks entry | Members $20 + Scienceworks entry
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