The NSS Tucson Chapter (the Tucson L5 Space Society) for the sixth year in a row had a booth at the Tucson Festival of Books this past weekend March 2-3. This annual event draws a crowd of some 130,000 people.
The highlight of the Tucson Chapter exhibit were two Oculus Rift headsets which provided virtual reality space tours that are quite impressive and were a hit with both adults and children (photo above).
Also on hand were NSS dignitaries Geoff Notkin of Meteorite Men and the NSS Board of Governors, and Rod Pyle, editor of Ad Astra and author of Space 2.0. Both were giving presentations on author panels and providing book signings at the event.
From left to right: Geoff Notkin (of Meteorite Men and the NSS Board of Governors), Rod Pyle (Ad Astra editor and author of Space 2.0), David Brandt-Erichsen (NSS Board of Directors), and Al Anzaldua (Chair of the NSS International Committee and Deputy Chair of the NSS Policy Committee). Photo by Melissa Silva. Top photo by Avery Davis.
You all deserve the personal appreciation of our global NSS members. Keep reaching out to our co-Earthlings.
Since the VR space tours took about 15 minutes, we put nearly 4 participants in a space tour every hour on each headset for 8 hours each day. We kept a list of participants which I have not tallied, but it looks to be over 120. The application that we used was very well received. Here is a link to the publisher:
http://discoveringvr.com/
I have a presentation on using VR for space advocacy outreach at this link:
https://www.l5space.org/projects
This was a great event, with packed standing-room-only events for both of us. We stumped hard for NSS, as did the volunteers at the society table. Wonderful to meet David and talk with Al. Ad Astra!