Taking 400 School Students to the Moon!

In 2016, Peter Koch and I embarked on a VR project that was not only exciting but incredibly rewarding. Over the course of just a few weeks, we dedicated our evenings and weekends to bringing an ambitious idea to life: creating an immersive VR experience that would take 400 students from his kid's Primary School on a virtual journey to the moon, recreating the historic Apollo 11 mission.

I led the creative direction, while Peter, took charge of the software engineering. Our brainstorming sessions during lunch led to productive evenings where we rapidly iterated on the concept. With the help of Martin Brown from Samsung Australia, I was able to secure 15 Samsung Gear VR headsets. This allowed us to design the experience in batches and ensure all 400 students could experience the moon landing.

One of the ideas that Peter and I were both passionate about was including John F. Kennedy’s famous “We choose to go to the moon” speech. We went back and forth on how to incorporate it since JFK never lived to see the mission's success. In the end, we placed it within a drive-in theatre setting as part of a historic news broadcast, which gave the students a feel of what life was like at the time, and set the scene for the virtual moon journey.

The first sequence begins with the Saturn V rocket on the launchpad. I designed the perspective from the base of the rocket, giving students a powerful sense of its sheer scale. Real-world dimensions were crucial here, complete with custom particle effects and sound synced to the countdown, to recreate the excitement of space exploration. The attention to detail was something I was particularly proud of—ensuring that students felt the awe of standing at the base of the rocket before it launched.

I created a series of episodic moments, one of which was designed to ‘fly’ the students above Cape Canaveral. The stereoscopic VR sequence allowed them to explore and view the scene from all angles. Our goal was to avoid motion sickness, which meant focusing on slow, smooth movements. I built the 3D environment using satellite imagery from Google Maps of Cape Canaveral which I photo-textured for accuracy and better realism.

I was initially working on an accurate model of the Lunar Rover, which only seated two astronauts. After discussing it with Peter, I modified it to fit 15 participants, including their teacher, seated in front. Peter networked all the headsets so students would see each other as fellow astronauts, enhancing the collaborative and social aspect of the experience. This setup created a cohesive group journey, with students interacting and pointing out things to each other during the moon landing simulation. Peter and I even experimented with a method where we could take each student's photo and map it onto a 3D plane inside the astronaut helmet, creating the effect that their face was inside. While we managed to get it working, the lack of animated facial expressions made it look a bit unnatural and fell into the 'uncanny valley.' Ultimately, we decided to abandon that idea and opted for a mirrored astronaut visor instead, which felt more seamless and added a cool, reflective look.

We recreated the moment Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon by making every student feel like they were the chosen astronaut descending the ladder. As they looked back, they would see their friends still seated in the rover, but they experienced the iconic moment as though it were just for them. Many students later commented on how incredible it was to feel like they were stepping onto the moon themselves.

This project reinforced my belief in the potential of collaborative VR for education and other fields. You can read more about the project in the Manly Daily press release here .

The Manly Daily press release captured the essence of the project perfectly, with Peter stating, “It feels like you are really there,” which was exactly the effect we wanted to achieve. Although there were technical challenges, like Peter managing the battery life of each device, the project was a resounding success. We created something that was more than just a classroom activity; it was a shared, collaborative VR experience that engaged and inspired students in a new and meaningful way.

I truly believe that this is the future of mixed reality. If two or more people can see and interact with the same thing, at exactly the same time, whether they are in the same room or seated next to one another, or if they are in different parts of the world, that connection is profound. It can lead to better social interactions, education, or industry applications. This level of interaction should be the foundation of any mixed reality experience.