Travel Through a Solar Storm: An immersive virtual reality experience.

The principal aim of the project is to inspire, enthuse and educate the general public, from students in schools to kids and adults visiting science centres/museums about space science. In particular, we want to inform the public about what a space storm is and how space weather affects Earth and our human societies. With this project, we propose a creative and immersive 3D experience of what it looks like to travel in and with a solar storm, from the Sun to the Earth.

A solar storm, also known as a coronal mass ejection (hereafter CME), is a big cloud of charged particles travelling from the Sun, and originating in energetic events called solar flares. CMEs are the hurricane of space: they swipe the natural magnetic shield of our planet on their way and can create large disruptions. As satellites can be damaged by high-energy particles, telecommunications and GPS systems can be disturbed. In extreme events, solar storms can also be at the origin of electricity blackouts. With our societies relying more and more on electricity and telecommunication systems, it is important to educate the general public of what a space storm is and what the latest science brings for our general understanding, and to enthuse visitors about better space weather predictions.

With this project, we propose an immersive and realistic computer-simulated experience that will give an audience member the sensation of being in space with the development of a short movie sequence, displayed using the Oculus Rift. This piece of technology is a virtual reality headset which utilises head-tracking and stereoscopic 3D, that the company Oculus intend to release to consumers this year (the developer version, which we will use, being already commercialised).

The audience's point of view would be that of an astronaut in a spacesuit, being able to see planets and our Sun in a 3D environment. The short movie will start with a solar eruption and the launch of a coronal mass ejection, with data directly derived from current space missions such as the ESA and NASA funded missions Solar Dynamics Observatory, STEREO and SOHO, and will also briefly discuss the interest of the future ESA mission Solar Orbiter. The evolution of the solar storm in space up to the Earth will be modelled by the digital effects designer Mr Saville.

Due to the nature of the workflow, it will be possible to extract a standard film version of the experience to be shown on TVs and 3D TVs during the exhibitions. This is an important side deliverable of the project as we expect a few audience members to feel the use of the Oculus Rift uncomfortable.

Throughout the development of the project and with the help of science outreach officers, Dr Janvier will intervene at different exhibition centres in Dundee and Edinburgh as well as in local schools to test the ideas developed for the movie and ask for feedback from the public. Not only will the experience be led by a joint collaboration between the creative industry and forefront research, it will also be the outcome of strong partnerships with local science centres, museums and schools.

While many scientific experience installations designed for educational benefit have been accurate in a scientific sense, not many have also offered images that are realistic, as if the audience was to somehow experience space phenomena first-hand. This first for its kind virtual reality "space storm" experience will be proposed as a portable exhibition in different locations: from local schools in Dundee to the Dundee Science Centre and Mills Observatory, as well as the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. We will propose this experience as a science exhibition during the Women in Science Dundee Festival (targeting a women/girl-only audience) and the Edinburgh International Science festival (March-April 2015). We aim at targeting an audience of 1000 people by the end of the first year.

The project will aim at collaborating with the public not only during the exhibition of the project, but during its development as we aim at collecting as many feedback as possible from our audiences.

First, we will organise "science corners" both at the National Museum of Scotland and Dundee Science Centre. The first one (see agenda - attachments) will aim at understanding what the general knowledge of the general public is and what they are expecting from such an experience. Dr Janvier will train a few volunteers to work throughout the month and to collect as much information as possible. This will serve when detailing the scenario of the short movie. Then, during phase 3 (see agenda), the movie draft will be proposed as a test at local schools, where Dr Janvier will go to talk about space weather and solar eruptions. This will be direct dissemination to local schools, with a chance for them to feedback on the project before the final version is produced.
Finally, during phase 4, the latest phase of the project corresponding to the final exhibition, not only will discussions with volunteering science communicators at Dundee Science Centre (the training of the volunteers at the Dundee Science Centre will be provided after financial review at the Centre and from the outcome of other public engagement proposals - note that Dr Janvier's colleagues at the University of Dundee will also volunteer as science experts), Mills Observatory and National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh be proposed, with a Question-Answer session with the audience, we will also be preparing a small leaflet explaining the science of space weather and the idea behind the present project.
The exhibitions will be advertised with posters and mailing lists.

We also plan to submit proposals to propose our portable exhibition in British science festivals (locally, with the Dundee Women in Science festival, and the Edinburgh International Science festival, both in Spring), but also nationally, at for example the Cheltenham Science festival (which would take place before the end of the project) or at the National Astronomical Meeting.

Finally, we would like to present our exhibition at local science communities. For that, we plan to actively network with local and national science associations (Beltane in Edinburgh, British Science Association).