Holoverse: A Rocket Launch Hologram

Using multimedia resources found online, develop a virtual experience that would allow someone to experience a past or upcoming rocket launch as if they were observing it from a few miles away (i.e. a close, but safe distance from the launch pad). If possible, convey the impact that local/global/space weather has on a launch.

July 16th, 1969: The world stopped as the Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. People gathered around their televisions and radios to watch and listen in excitement as the rocket took to the skies to infinity and beyond. Thousands of children pursued their dreams to become astronauts and to one day, go into space themselves. However, 46 years later, people are no longer interested in space-we have stopped looking towards the stars.

Holoverse seeks to reignite the passion that once was the spark that fueled the space race. We intended to do so by bringing one of the most powerful but inaccessible experiences in mankind to a medium accessible to almost everyone: the smartphone/tablet. Using technology and low-cost hardware (a hologram pyramid), the Holoverse team will recreate past rocket launches as well as bring future rocket launches into a 3-D hologram that people of all ages can enjoy together.

In doing so, Holoverse sought to accomplish two objectives: 1) to raise awareness and excitement about NASA's mission, and 2) to engage children and to get them excited about space exploration at an early age. With the use of a simple smartphone and/or tablet app and hardware costing about 15 US Dollars, we are confident that the product we have created will accomplish its objectives and get children looking back up at the stars again.

Material resources: 3D Printer, ABS plastic, Clear acrylic board