I have always been a enthusiast in everything related to space. Although I found everything related to it lit up by the back light of my fascination, I realise that a lot of people do not feel the same. I realize that a lot of kids never get the fair chance to judge what space is about with circumstances around. I even wish to change the perspective people have on space using this project, hence the tagline. A lot of people say this, "Why do people waste money on space travel." A few years back when this was asked at a convention I was in to a former astronaut, his answer was simple. Take em to space! An ant which knows how to move in a straight line is fascinated when another shows that left and right is a thing. An ant which can move in a 2D space is fascinated when they are showed that walls can be climbed! That is precisely the state space in. Even though accessible space travel is quite far from us (Hopes are on you SpaceX), space can still be accessed through none other than VR!
So I believe this is my case for space, more than anything!
What it does
It's a simple project due to it being my first time at a hackathon. The project simulates space down to the dot with the orbital movement. It takes you from space to the earth, shows a semi launchoff and then allows you to orbit around the earth, getting to experience the beauty of the galaxy we live in and the magnificence structure of the ISS.
How I built it
I built it using Unity, the Oculus SDK for unity, Blender, 3D ISS models and math!
Challenges I ran into
The first challenge was how new oculus was to me. I had never, ever used the rift before. VR was completely new to me in these 2 days. The math was rather hard and implementing all the huge bodies into a sub par computer for VR was quite a challenge too!
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
The whole project!
What I learned
I learned a lot more about VR and the experience that Astronauts have in space. Even though my model is a scaled down version of space, it really has just made me feel closer to it. This project taught me a lot of the math that goes behind space and how I can implement it through programming. It got me a lot more proficient with the unity interface and helped with working with models and astronomical sizes. The experience also made me think about the loneliness one feels in the vast expanse of space and inspires me to build a parallel Earth VR app for astronauts!
I wish to add more to SpaceWalk! Due to asset constraints (and hardware especially!) I was not able to add a lot of things I could. I wish to add things like simulations of the interiors of the ISS, a rocket launch and a lot more! I even hope to simulate the mars rover on VR with some collaboration.
P.S - The link below will have to be run on a laptop!
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