Watch the astronauts in action aboard the International Space Station as if you were by their side. See and feel the emotions they experience as they peer out the portholes at our planet and as they find themselves in the vast expanses of the vacuum of space making repairs. That provides the immersive experience Space explorers: INFINITYpresented in Montreal’s Old Port by INFINITY Experiences, a joint venture between Studio Phi and Felix Paul Studios.

All of the astronauts who stayed on the International Space Station underline the incredible opportunity they had to have this unique experience. Thanks to Space explorers: INFINITYthey will no longer be the only ones, the general public can now access them without leaving Earth.

Realism has never been more impressive, thanks to virtual reality cameras equipped with nine 4K sensors filming in 3D format over 360 degrees, developed by Felix Paul Studios of Montreal. One of these cameras was used to film various scenes of the astronauts’ daily life in the space station. The other, adapted for vacuum conditions, was attached to the end of the Canadian arm, which “served as a film crane to move the camera around the ISS and film the spacewalk of two astronauts,” said Félix Lajeunesse, Felix Paul Studios co-founder and chief creative officers

The cameras were equipped with a ventilation system to dissipate the heat they had accumulated due to the lack of gravity. And the one used for outdoor shooting was designed to withstand “without pressure and temperature differences of up to 400°C between the times the sun’s rays hit the camera and the times the sun lags behind “Earth. It had to be covered with aluminum and Teflon and the lenses modified so that they would not be totally blinded by the sun, whose rays are not filtered or absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. We had to provide a system for transmitting images from the Canadian arm, to be able to see what we were filming,” he explained.

These cameras were sent to the ISS in 2018. They were used to record hundreds of hours of content, including seven days outdoors, for almost two and a half years. Astronaut David Saint-Jacques is the one who received the cameras on the ISS. He learned to use them and enlisted his teammates on the project.

The Quebec astronaut, who was present at the press presentation, said he is deeply moved every time he sees the show. “Every time it’s like going back there, it’s so realistic. It warms my heart to know that many people can have this experience,” he said.

“Astronauts have been true creative partners in this adventure. They adapted and improved scenes from the script submitted to them. It was extraordinary when we discovered the images they had filmed! added Mr. Lajeunesse.

When walking in a virtual space station, the visitor, equipped with a virtual reality headset, encounters colored bubbles that can be activated by touching them. He is then transported in a scene shot at the exact spot he is in the train station. These bubbles turn us into privileged witnesses of the arrival of new astronauts to whom we explain emergency maneuvers, the departure of teammates who have become friends, moments of entertainment (balloon launches, candlelit dinners with little jazz music), daily life (going to bed and getting up, physical training), current scientific experiments.

A first show called Space Explorers: The ISS Experience was presented in Montreal in the summer of 2021 before touring to Houston, Seattle and San Francisco. Those lucky enough to see this show won’t be disappointed with the new one, Space explorers: INFINITY, which is even more spectacular because this time it includes footage from outside the International Space Station. The immersive experience is then particularly moving because Felix Paul Studios “reproduced the images to the scale of the ISS”.

The Canadian robot arm appears endlessly long and you can almost touch it. Solar panels look like huge skyscrapers. The SSI turns out to be a white giant peppered with several growths. The view of the blue planet, the sun rising and the clouds passing beneath our feet is more dizzying than ever. “To promote the contemplative dimension, to give people the opportunity to see their own planet like astronauts during a spacewalk and to feel the emotions they are experiencing in that moment, the Arm Canadian was stretched to its fullest extent, which it made it possible to see the earth undisturbed,” says Mr. Lajeunesse.

Other innovations compared to the previous version: A first room presents a portrait of the astronauts who appear in the sequences, as well as short films describing various highlights of the production of this production. Also, after the immersive experience, images filmed by Felix Paul Studios will be broadcast in a traditional format from the launch of the rocket of the Artemis program’s first mission to the moon.

The only downside of this breathtaking experience: the duration of the immersion session of about 40 minutes does not allow you to immerse yourself in the universe of each of the 70 bubbles offered. Time is running out. “It is indeed impossible to see everything. You have to come back several times,” answers Myriam Achard from the Phi Center.

To see in the video