Experience the flight deck of the NASA Space Shuttle in Second Life

The island of Sophia in Second Life now features an immersive depiction of the flight deck of the NASA Space Shuttle (actually, it's the high fidelity mockup at Johnson Space center in Houston). This is a visual representation only - the controls don't work - but it is a compelling effect. The display uses a Virtual Reality Room (VRR), an immersive, photo-realistic environment developed through a partnership between the New Media Consortium (NMC), the Info Island Archipelago, the Commonwealth Islands for not-for-profits, and Stephane Desnault (aka Stephane Zugzwang in SL).

After arriving at the location on Sophia (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sophia/203/217/30/), your avatar enters by walking through the curtain. Once inside it's easy to lose track of where you are; look for the exit sign when you want to leave. Also, be sure to grab a copy of the explanatory notecard. The Island of Sophia is being developed by a faculty learning community at the University of Notre Dame. For more information, please visit our wiki at http://flc-vw.wikispaces.com/.

Stephane first introduced the VRR in 2006; since then he has sold more than a thousand rooms to club owners, individual residents and corporations like IBM. Many scenes are now available for sale, and NMC will be compiling a collection of educational scenes for free distribution. Owners can create their own scenes, as we did. Our images were found at http://www.panoscan.com/CubicDemos/Cubic.html and are used with permission -- special thanks to Ted Chavalas of Panoscan Inc. and NASA!

Educators and not-for-profits can obtain a obtain free, fully functional copy of the VRR at the NMC Campus in Second Life. More information can be found in-world at the VRR Shop (slurl.com/secondlife/Solariam/201/175/431/). You can read more about the VRR on the web at http://sl.nmc.org/2008/01/15/vrr-demo/

- - Chris Clark [SL: Hezekiah Dench]