Destination: Pluto the VR Experience

The New Horizons probe to Pluto, a spacecraft that traveled almost a million miles per day for a decade, is one of the most celebrated missions in the history of space exploration. It is by far the longest journey in human history, and you can join us at the destination in immersive virtual reality. Imagery and topographical data sent from the probe have revealed for the first time an astonishing planet filled with the wonders of new, previously unknown geological processes.

What if you could stand on the surface of Pluto and behold some of these wonders up close, as though you were actually there? Using real imagery and data from 3 billion miles away, Destination Pluto: The VR Experience harnesses the power of virtual reality to give you mankind’s first self-guided tour of the surface of Pluto.

Destination Pluto: The VR Experience showcases three different locations based on their unusual geological processes—from the dark canyon lands of Krun Macula in the south; to the glacier spill way of Sputnik Planum’s north shore at the al-Idrisi Mountains; to the pitted high plains of the central Sputnik Planum. Tour these locations from the safety of your own personal space pod, or, if you dare, fly among the hills and canyons yourself. You can even walk around, and heft huge boulders as each location is calibrated with the physics of Pluto’s gravity in mind. Jet-pack across an entire hemisphere of Pluto and even visit the New Horizons spacecraft as it makes its way through the Plutonian System. Descriptive placards highlight points of interest around the landscape.

To learn more about the furthest point of exploration in human history and the incredible technology, precision, and ingenuity that led us to the outer reaches of our solar system, watch Destination: Pluto on CuriosityStream.