Google: A Spacecraft For All

Mixing video with 3D infoviz in a web browser to tell the story of a lost spaceprobe brought back to life by hackers.

Google: A Spacecraft For All

A Spacecraft For All: Homepage

“A Spacecraft For All” was a Chrome Experiment - a series showcasing web technologies and the capabilities of the Chrome browser.

In this case we were demonstrating WebGL - and it’s abilities to overlay interactive 3D graphics over streaming video to create an innovative mini-documentary about the ISEE-3 spaceprobe.

This craft had been launched by NASA in the 1970s and since lost in the solar system. A group of space enthusiasts, engineers and scientists had launched a crowdfunded effort to contact, reboot and in effect salvage the spacecraft to turn it into an open access space-science platform.

Team: Richard The, Suzanne Chambers, Asa Block, Isaac Blankensmith, Glenn Cochon, George Michael Brower

Still from A Spacecraft For All showing the ISEE-3 probe's trajectory
Still from A Spacecraft For All overlaying 3D graphics on video of the ISEE-3 probe
Still from A Spacecraft For All charting the ISEE-3 probe's path through the solar system
Animation from A Spacecraft For All tracing the ISEE-3 probe's orbit