“We’re using NASA data to rebuild the terrain and explore what climbing could look like,” he says. Jeff Raynor, founder of MXTreality, says he is working to develop climbing experiences based on features of different planets-for instance a 70,000-foot-high peak on Mars. “It would be a superhuman indoor soccer game.”
“Maybe it won’t exactly be how we play on earth, but we’re talking to engineers about creating a dome where you could bounce a ball off walls and jump off walls,” he says. Playing an actual soccer game in low gravity on Mars may not be far off, Mr. MarsVR, a collaboration between the Mars Society, a Lakewood, Colo.-based non-profit dedicated to human exploration on Mars, and MXTreality, a Seattle-based technology company specializing in virtual and augmented reality experiences, simulates what it would be like to experience sports on the surface of the Red Planet.īlue Origin space company and founder of Space United, a network of traditional soccer clubs for space engineers, worked with the MXTreality developers to design a feature in their soon-to-launch MarsVR experience that allows users to attempt to kick a soccer ball on Mars, as well as learn about how throwing and hitting sports in Martian gravity may have to be adjusted. Virtual reality has become an accessible way for Earthlings to test their space-athletics skills. One of the first is a collaboration with Greg Roe, a Canadian expert in extreme trampoline, which involves seemingly gravity-defying jumps and maneuvers.ĭo you think sports in space will take off in coming years? Join the conversation below. She is also working to develop Earth-based spatial-awareness training programs for what she calls astroletes. The winners will split a $5,000 cash prize and have their ideas fine-tuned on gravity-free parabolic flights affiliated with the Space Games Federation in hopes of ultimately becoming the basis of space sports leagues, Ms. A global vote on the organization’s web site narrowed submissions, and the federation on Friday announced five winners, including “Inno”-a game that involves trampolines and Velcro-padded walls with the aim of bouncing balls through the opposing team’s goal-and “Space Ball,” a riff on basketball with the objective of getting a magnetic ball through a hoop of the same polarity. In 2019, the group launched a crowd-sourced competition to develop original games designed to be played in space. Players on board a parabolic flight test a game in zero gravity. “I hope one day sports can democratize space, providing access for both ‘astroletes’ and spectators.” “Right now, space is a billionaire boys club,” she says. whose career in television sports graphics earned her a place in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame, says she founded the Space Games Federation in 2014 with the aim of developing new competitive sports designed to be played in zero- or micro-gravity. Those early stunts made clear that some of the world’s most popular sports don’t translate when you remove or reduce gravity. In 20, astronauts and cosmonauts celebrated the FIFA World Cup by testing their soccer skills aboard the International Space Station. Yet the slow half-swing sent the golf ball flying around 600 feet. In his pressurized space suit, he could only swing the golf club with one hand.
In 1971,ġ4 Commander Alan Shepard teed off on the surface of the Moon. Sports as recreation have also been attempted in less-than-serious forms. Astronauts strap themselves to treadmills for two-plus hours a day while in orbit to avoid bone loss due to the lack of gravity. The idea of zero-gravity athletics has a long history. He’s working with Linda Rheinstein, founder of the privately funded Space Games Federation, to develop the game. Called “Float Ball,” his vision combines elements of football, dodgeball and basketball and involves teams moving balls of various colors to a total of four goals at either end of the playing venue–be it a spaceship cabin or custom space arena. He says his initial reaction was: “This is cool, but what do you do when you get bored?” This inspired him to devise a game that could be played in space. Ken Harvey, a former linebacker for the Washington Redskins (now Commanders) experienced weightlessness in 2008 aboard a flight with Zero Gravity Corporation, an Exploration Park, Fla.-based company that operates flights from airports in the U.S. Former Washington Redskins linebacker Ken Harvey, here at a conference earlier this year, is developing a game for space called “Float Ball.”