Take a trip to the ISS with ‘Space Explorers: The Infinite’

The immersive VR experience now at Stanley Marketplace is a unique opportunity to leave Earth behind

Once again, Denver Center’s Off-Center program has taken over Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace with a large, immersive exhibit — this time focused on space. Unlike some other Off-Center experiences, Space Explorers: The Infinite is an outside production in association with Infinity Experiences. And what they’ve set up in the Stanley’s cavernous main hall is nothing short of remarkable. It’s a full 3D virtual replica of the International Space Station (ISS) that allows you to explore it inside and out and see the people working and living there in a variety of different scenarios.

Even after reviewing plenty of the advance material and a video or two about Space Explorers, I wasn’t entirely prepared for what the experience was all about. Since the main question I think many people would have is simply What is it?, I’ll boil it down to a few bullet points here:

1. You enter the outer area and queue up in a maze with profiles of NASA astronauts displayed on hanging panels. It’s actually pretty interesting to read about these exceptional individuals, many of whom have multiple degrees and have spent many days in space. There are some other images and video of launches and other space-y things as well.
2. When it’s your turn to enter, you’ll get a quick rundown from a guide about what to expect.
3. Time to enter the inner sanctum, where another guide will tell you more stuff and you’ll grab your VR headset off a groovy little conveyor belt. Pay close attention to these instructions because they’ll help you navigate what’s next without bumping into those around you.
4. Things will go dark, and you can now see those around you displayed as human avatars with different-colored orbs in the center signifying guides, your group and everyone else. Hold up your VR hands and they look like those of a Star Trek entity that’s 7,000 times smarter than you.
5. The next few steps are tricky as you’ll be moving forward and through a white-light frame of sorts into the main area of the experience. It’ll take you a few minutes to get used to how to maneuver, so take it slowly. If you seem utterly lost, as I did at first, a guide will be able to contact you through the headset to help.

Your own personal spacewalk

You’re now outside the ISS, which looks like a floating digital blueprint at first but that appears in its realistic form as you move around and through it. You can walk through the walls of the ISS while looking for these glowing orbs that you can activate by touching them with your avatar hands. Once activated, the scene changes to one of many options, all in 360 HD video. They’re short vignettes of life on the ISS, just a few minutes each.

In one, I was a fly on the wall during a normal mealtime with a half-dozen or so ISS crewmembers from different countries. I could see up close the way they acted in zero-gravity, the specific types of drink containers they were using, how they secure utensils to the side of the table rather than set them on top — all that kind of detail. In another, I was perched outside the ISS a few meters from where crewmembers were on a spacewalk to repair something or other. Below was the Earth, above the infinity of space — all of it very surreal and affecting.

There are quite a few of these orb scenarios — so many in fact that you won’t have time to try them all. It was fun to compare notes with my wife afterwards, since she saw things I hadn’t. The upshot is the experience is different for everyone, and you’d need to go two or three more times to see it all.

After the walking-around part, you’re guided to a final area where you simply sit in a chair and take in more VR wizardry. On the way out there’s a looping video on an enormous screen of the Artemis 1 launch. All told you’re the experience takes about 45 minutes, with about 35 of those in VR.

Enormous launch vehicles like the SLS rocket used for Artemis 1 are rolled out on ginormous track vehicles that go about .02 mph. This video at the end of Space Explorers shows it up close.

Space Explorers has the feel of a high-end theme-park attraction — there’s even a gift shop at the end with plenty of NASA merch — but you emerge feeling like you’ve experienced something pretty special. It’s one thing to read about the ISS and even see photos or videos of the crew doing stuff, but until you’re immersed in that environment completely as you are here, it’s hard to truly grok it.

In addition to seeing close-up everything from how a crewmember’s long hair stands up straight to the fine detail of the bolts outside holding the whole thing together, there’s also a more striking revelation. Watching these people from different countries all working together while high above the crazy blue marble below gives the sense of the possible. It’s a great place to wonder why we can’t all get along, and to reflect on the lunacy of all the BS happening on Earth when we’re just a speck in the universe.

And an oh-so-fragile one at that.