MOONWALK
Multi-Platform Immersive Reality Experience
Travel Through Space and Back in Time
In May of 2022, our “Moonwalk” Multi-Platform Immersive Reality Experience brought 10,000+ people to the moon at the Smithsonian Arts & Industries Building as part of their FUTURES exhibition. Through our strategic partnership with Meta Immersive Learning, we teamed up with our long-time collaborator Black Dot Films VR to bring this concept to life in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo missions.
The virtual reality (VR) experience is the result of Black Dot Films VR’s dedication to over four years of archival research, technical R&D, and filmmaking. Through the use of cutting-edge technology and a technique called photogrammetry, they rebuilt the lunar surface from roughly 7,000 archival images taken during NASA’s Apollo missions to create an inspiring, emotional, and sometimes hilarious story featuring archival audio recordings from the astronauts.
To create Moonwalk, researchers and immersive storytellers from our partners at Black Dot Films VR spent four years processing more than 7,000 archival NASA photographs from six Apollo Missions from 1969 to 1972, using the most cutting-edge technologies, some of which didn’t exist when the project first began. Then, using photogrammetry, a technique that turns 2D images into 3D models, they turned the photographs into a fully rendered VR lunar landscape. Artificial intelligence helped fill in the gaps. As lead creator Max Salomon said, it’s like “unlocking what’s inside a photograph and turning it into a world that you can inhabit.” This was combined with inspiring, emotional and at times hilarious archival audio recordings from Apollo lunar landings and detailed 3D scans of the Apollo 11 command module from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Combined together for the first time, audiences could feel like they were truly on a mission to the moon.
Making the Most of Immersive Realities
Additionally, we partnered with augmented reality (AR) creators @csavenables and @simone_creativestudio to develop a series of educational, entertaining Spark AR effects on Instagram to help people learn about AIB’s unique history with space travel, as well as examine the Apollo command module in detail, and even take a “lunar selfie” in an astronaut suit.
The success of “Moonwalk” is a testament to what future learning could look like in the Metaverse, and we’re proud to be pioneers exploring the endless possibilities in this field. While a lunar journey will be hard to top, we can’t wait to see what the next immersive adventure holds as we continue to bridge the physical and digital worlds.
10,000+
Experienced Moonwalk in VR
Multi-Platform Engagement
220,000+
Combined Moonwalk QR scans VR
11.6 M
Total Impressions via #THEFUTURES
Experience Moonwalk Augmented Reality With Instagram
“It has literally never been possible, unless you were an astronaut, to experience the moon this way.”
— Rachel Goslins, director of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building
“Moonwalk” Multi-Platform Immersive Reality Experience was created in part by funding from the Meta Immersive Learning initiative.
The experience premiered at Smithsonian’s Arts + Industries Building “FUTURES” exhibition, May 4 – June 5 2022, curated by Ashley Molese, and project managed by Hilary-Morgan Watt, Director of Digital Engagement. The 3D-digitized scan of the Apollo 11 command module was created by the Smithsonian's Digitization Program office, which uses cutting-edge technologies to enhance the access, use and impact of Smithsonian collections.
Physical exhibition construction and design for this limited run experience was produced with Sparks, an award-winning exhibit design and brand experience agency.