The engineering firm Lockheed Martin operates in 70 countries worldwide and one of its key products is space systems, creating technology and communications between earth and space. They have been involved with all missions to Mars since the first spacecraft landed on the planet in 1976.

They wanted a way to engage with younger generations who may be less aware of their brand heritage and they needed a concept that was sustainable. Working with the ad agency McCann, they came up with the idea of creating an event around the Orion interplanetary spacecraft, which had taken its first flight. They decided to focus the event around the US Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC, which they sponsored. This event takes place every two years and over 50,000 children attend.

The idea developed into converting an old-fashioned American school bus and transformed this into a VR experience. The school children would visit Mars on the way to the science fair. They realised that giving the students individual VR headsets would isolate individuals and decided this should be a group VR experience and they needed a different approach. The team needed expert help and found Framestore, a British visual effects company, who sourced video screens with hidden LEDs and special film that could be used as replacement bus windows that could appear to be clear until a switch was flicked, when the view would change and the outside world would be transformed into views of Mars.
Framestore already had some 3D artefacts from films of Mars but they realised that they needed three different sensors as they all performed one aspect of the VR environment, but not the whole thing.
One of the greatest challenges was changing the regular journey from the school to the science fair into a trip to Mars. The team digitally mapped the route, which traversed some 200 square miles of the Washington area, and the route was programmed and adapted to make it look more like the Martian environment – which was difficult, as most roads in Washington are straight and well maintained, unlike the bumpy terrain of Mars!
Sound was added, with speakers giving some surround-sound noise, but they also needed some haptic properties or bumps. The easiest way to do this was for some of the team to hide in the back of the bus and jump up at specific times.
The first group of students went on a virtual reality field trip to Mars in 2016 and the new purposebuilt Lockheed Martin Mars Experience Bus has since been created, which has been touring states in America.
Although this was a big leap in terms of application of a group VR program, it was similar to Myron Krueger’s original vision of VIDEOPLACE in 1977.
One of the greatest contributions of the Field Trip to Mars project is how this has changed the way companies think about virtual reality and its application to business. The project has also demonstrated alternative ways of using VR for education, and unsurprisingly those working on the project have won many advertising and creative awards for innovation.
Watch the video at fieldtriptomars.com Questions Consider an organisation of your choice:
• How could a similar project to the Field Trip to Mars be used for this organisation?
• What would be required to make this happen?
• What would be the main advantages?
• What challenges would you anticipate in proposing such an idea to the senior management team?

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