News

NASA Announces VR Mars Ride With Actual 90-Foot Drop

Those lucky enough to attend the Super Bowl Live festival in Houston have the chance to travel to Mars in virtual reality.

The Super Bowl is just around the corner, and unsurprisingly the multiple promotional events dedicated to the massively-popular spectacle have begun to kick off. One of the biggest of these events, Super Bowl Live, will take place nine days leading up to the big game February 5th in Houston, Texas at NRG Stadium. The festival will host a variety of attractions, but arguably the most fascinating is NASA’s VR Mars ride, Future Flight.

Lasting over two minutes, the virtual reality simulator allows users to strap into a NASA shuttle and travel to the big red planet themselves, viewing a wide variety of actual recorded footage from Mars. Here’s the really cool part though: The virtual journey ends with an actual 90 foot free-fall back to good old planet Earth that lands passengers directly on the 50-yard line of NRG Stadium just in time for kickoff at Super Bowl LI. Too. Freaking. Cool.

nasa-vr-mars-ride2

The ambitious VR simulator is just one attraction NASA is using during this year’s Super Bowl taking place in their own hometown. The important space agency will also be at the event with its Space Launch System rocket engines, the Orion spacecraft, replicas of the Curiosity rover and James Webb Space Telescope, and more.

nasa-vr-mars-rideSallie Sargent, president and CEO of the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee, spoke about the decision to make Future Flight the key attraction at this years Super Bowl Live, stating, “The Host Committee has declared Super Bowl LI as the Super Bowl of the future in the City of the Future. Nothing says future more than deep space travel. The Host Committee is thrilled to partner with NASA and the leading space industry companies to create the Future Flight Experience for people to enjoy during Super Bowl LIVE.”

Super Bowl Live takes places Jan. 28, 2017 through Feb. 5, 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.

The New England Patriots take on the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI Sunday, February 5.

About the Scout

Jonathan Nafarrete

Jonathan Nafarrete is the co-founder of VRScout.

Send this to a friend