I stand so close to JAXA’s Hayabusa2 asteroid lander that I could reach out and touch it. Instead, I jump on top of it. Then I strike a pose. When I jump, I hover low for a moment gravity A rugged, grey world, devoid of life and colour, before slowly descending to the surface of Ryugu.
“I”” in this case, my avatar is a digital imitation of myself with a more consistent beard length and not constantly rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft I’m standing on and asteroid Below, digital avatars have also been recreated virtual reality.
The VR experience I was in is part of the 2024 Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting, where the country’s astronomers come together to present new research, share results and socialize. This year’s meeting was held almost entirely online in June, utilizing the platform Spatial Providing participants with access to the conference via VR.
A digital venue was built that includes poster halls, exhibition halls, meeting rooms and a conference hall. The Future of MeetingsAn international collaboration working to make meetings more sustainable and accessible.
Relating to: Ryugu Asteroid Holds Secrets of Our Solar System’s Past, Present and Future
I was initially a little hesitant to attend the conference in VR. I am a VR skeptic, having worked as a video games journalist and seen the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the hype surrounding the technology. But space is tragic, and as someone standing on a dirt hill in Coober Pedy, Australia, Ryugu returned quickly Soil In 2020, I would also describe myself as: I’m so excited to be standing on an asteroid.
So during the conference, I launched Spatial, walked my avatar around the Exhibition Hall, and took him through a portal showing Ryugu and the spacecraft that visited it in 2018. It was like Super Mario 64 and jumped out of a portrait.
I immediately landed on the asteroid’s surface. Ryugu model, All encompassingis an initiative founded by astronomer Sasha Kaurov to create virtual worlds for scientific studies using real images. Hayabusa2While it’s not a perfect replica, it certainly reflects the area surrounding the spacecraft’s landing zone, the shadowy plain surrounding the spacecraft’s landing area. JAXA has a chance to score a goal and get the material back in 2019.
Elizabeth Tasker, a professor JAXA and part of the agency’s launch team, noted that it was difficult to determine whether Ryugu’s topology would be scalable. However, models of Hayabusa2 and the lander and rovers were scalable, he said.
There’s not much to do in Ryugu World other than marvel at space, but that’s the point. This isn’t a video game. It’s a tool. Especially space and the appeal from a planetary science perspective is obvious: Using data and real-world observations, we can visit places we could never physically reach.
Tasker led a tour of the exhibit at Spatial during the ASA meeting, pointing out certain aspects of the Hayabusa2 spacecraft that wouldn’t be so straightforward when presented on a PowerPoint slide. The digital 3D model offers a way to look at the spacecraft up close and examine finer details, such as where target markers and the small carry-on impact device are stored during operations.
The surface of Ryugu is not exactly an asteroid. You can’t walk from one side to the other.
“At the end of the tour, I mentioned that it was possible (and quite easy in low gravity) to escape the end of the asteroid stage and fall into space,” Tasker said. “This was supposed to be a warning, but it quickly resulted in at least one person falling to their (virtual) death! Fortunately, after a short fall time“You respawn on the asteroid surface.”
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When you stand on the surface of an asteroid in VR, something happens in your brain that makes the experience sticky. I’ve written more words than most about Ryugu’s surface, its chemistry, and its importance to planetary science, but being able to stand on it, even digitally, provided a real “oh my” moment—an appreciation of the difficulty of landing on a tiny rock floating millions of miles from Earth.
Of course, when I was done, I jumped off the edge.