Google had previously introduced AR Stickers. These have fictional spacecraft from Star Wars. Now NASA has set the bar even higher by developing their own NASA Spacecraft AR. It offers entire spacecraft via artificial reality.
On opening the app, the users are asked to choose from four ‘Missions’ named ‘Earth’, ‘Mars’, ‘Planetary’, and ‘Other’. ‘Earth’ has SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive), ‘Mars’ contains the Curiosity rover, and ‘Planetary’ comes with Cassini, Voyager, and Juno. The last one, the ‘Other,’ has a 70-meter DSN Antenna. A question mark will be provided on the top right of every spacecraft’s card. By clicking on it the users can visit the fact page.
The Setup seems to be inspired by that of the AR Stickers. The users must make circular movements with the camera pointing toward a flat surface. Then by tapping on a certain position, the models can be placed exactly there. The models are very detailed & impressive indeed. They have moving parts capable of spinning around. Whirring noises can be heard as well when the spin motion is going on. The models are scaled down by default. The most interesting part is that these models can be made life-sized with ease.
The list of devices that will support Spacecraft AR isn’t officially released yet. Pixel 2 XL, Pixel XL, and Galaxy S8+ are among the devices that will definitely support it. Some famous devices like OnePlus 5T, Essential Phone, HTC 10, and some older phones will not support it, though.
