A journey to space is just a dream for everyone but an exclusive club of astronauts from a few countries, China among them, around the world.
San Francisco-based startup SpaceVR wants to give people the next best thing. This coming August, the company said it plans to send a satellite equipped with virtual reality cameras into space onboard a SpaceX rocket.
Equipped with eight cameras, the satellite will capture two to three hours of 360-degree footage every month during its nine months in space.
The footage it captures will be sent back to earth. The company plans to release this footage on formats compatible with virtual reality headsets by the end of the year. This will give the public a new way to experience space.
"I realized that once that happens to everyone, we'll fundamentally live in a different world as a species, because we'll all think differently," SpaceVR CEO Ryan Holmes said. Holmes on Sunday showed off the satellite the company plans to send to space.
The company began work on the project several years ago. SpaceVR raised 1.25 million US dollars last year, with bulk of the cash coming from Chinese firm Shanda Group.
