After filming the International Space Station to create the immersive journey infinity, Studios Félix & Paul and Phi have a new objective: to film the next Artemis mission to the Moon. In the meantime, we can go back up to the Space Station to discover – all summer long – an “enriched” version of the route.
Slowly but surely, space exploration continues. Artemis 2, which will take off in 2024 or 2025, will mark NASA’s return to the Moon, with four astronauts on board, including Canadian Jeremy Hansen.
“After Artemis 2, there will be Artemis 3, where humans will walk on the Moon for the first time since 1972, says Félix Lajeunesse, of Studios Félix & Paul. After that there will be Artemis 4, 5, 6…until there is a continued presence of humans. All this in order to prepare for a mission to Mars. So we continue to work with NASA and the other space agencies to document these missions. We’ve already started filming astronaut training. »
In addition to Jeremy Hansen, we will find astronauts Christina Koch and Victor Glover, both present in the immersive journey infinityresumed in Old Montreal since Wednesday.
Create new technologies
Félix Lajeunesse’s team now includes nearly ten people who work full-time on “space technologies”. “This is a team that has worked on the development of intra and extravehicular cameras and is now working on the concept of the cameras of the future. We have no choice, because we want to tell these stories, but the technologies don’t exist, so we have to create them. »
What has been done with infinity is still stunning. Those who lived the immersive experience during its inauguration, in the summer of 2021, will tell you, the virtual tour of the Space Station is spectacular.
For the resumption of the installation, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques – who himself filmed several of the shots that can be seen in infinity – redid the course a little over an hour before meeting the media on Thursday.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Astronaut David Saint-Jacques
It’s like a great travel album, for me. I looked outside the Station, I saw the cupola, I heard my friends talking, it’s like going back there. Just walking around, seeing my bedroom, the kitchen, it’s really realistic. It’s important for astronauts not to keep it all in our head, because it’s such a transformative experience, it doesn’t make sense not to share it.
David Saint-Jacques, astronaut
Equipped with a geolocated virtual reality helmet – which allows him to walk around without danger while avoiding obstacles –, the visitor virtually enters the Space Station. By touching with his hands the small capsules that appear on his way (in bubbles), he is projected into a 360-degree virtual universe where he shares scenes of life and work with the astronauts.
These short capsules may have left some people hungry. Félix Lajeunesse recalls that the goal was to create an immersive and non-pedagogical course. “We didn’t want to suffocate the ambulatory with explanatory content,” he explains. The objective was really that the visitor live the same experience as the astronauts. »
An enhanced course
A dozen new capsules have been added to this new version, which now includes around sixty, mainly shots from outside the Station (which had not yet been processed two years ago), but above all, at the end , in an eight-minute segment, the spacewalk of two astronauts – images of great beauty captured by a camera installed on the Canada Arm.
Are there elements that astronaut David Saint-Jacques would have liked to see, but which were not filmed?
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Visitors discover the immersive exhibition infinity.
“It’s quite complete, but there is an intense moment in the life of an astronaut, it is the arrival of another space vehicle. Maybe it’s something that we could eventually film; docking a vehicle to the Space Station is dizzying. »
We see friends arriving through the porthole, it’s special. And it’s tricky, we’re both moving at 8 km per second when we dock, so it’s pretty intense.
David Saint-Jacques, astronaut
Asked about the importance of sending humans on a mission into space, David Saint-Jacques insisted on the importance of continuing the exploration work, even if it is small steps.
“Humanity’s priority will never be space exploration, and that’s okay. But humanity progresses because we keep a fraction of our energies and our resources to dream, through the arts and science, and that’s how civilization advances. We always want to see what’s on the other side of the mountain. We must not forget that environmental awareness and international scientific collaboration come from space exploration. »
In October, the immersive course of infinity will be presented simultaneously in Vancouver. The one in Montreal will eventually be presented elsewhere in Canada.
infinity is presented since May 3 and for the whole summer in Old Montreal, at 2, rue de la Commune Ouest, right next to the Center des sciences.
Felix & Paul Studios
Félix & Paul Studios were founded 10 years ago by Félix Lajeunesse, Paul Raphaël and Stéphane Rituit.
The Montreal company specializes in the production of virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality content.
Among the original productions of Félix & Paul, there is the series Space Explorers, Traveling While Black, MIYUBIseries Nomads, strangers with Patrick Watson and the series The Confessional.
Félix & Paul worked on projects around films Jurassic World, Wild And Isle of Dogs as well as Cirque du Soleil shows.
It is the only company in the world designated as an “Official Implementing Partner” by the US National Laboratory on the International Space Station.