What Houston Holds For Fans This Super Bowl Live Fan Festival.
Football fans planning on attending the 2017 Super Bowl Live Fan Festival in Houston have a lot to look forward. The innovative fan fest will be held at the Discovery Green, and will run from the January 28 through February 5, 2017. The Houston Super Bowl Host Committee unveiled “WOW” plans designed to take fans on a space exploration trip to the planet Mars and then have people dropped back to earth in ample time to watch the game at NRG Stadium. The first of its kind fan experience has been dubbed Future Flight and is a result of the combined effort between the host committee and NASA. This is an immersive virtual reality experience, one bound to be unforgettable for National Football League fans in attendance as are the ever changing real-time betting odds by MyBookie.lv. The Sports Techie community blog is an advocate for both the race to space, amusement park rides and wagering. Future Flight is sure to enhance the NFL event because of the cutting edge VR tech and other mind blowing space exhibits all created to augment the SB LI Live Fan Festival in big Texas style.
But how exactly does the committee plan to achieve this?
The Future Flight Explained
Simply put, visitors will be dropped 90 feet, or 27 meters using a combination of virtual reality and a drop tower ride. The tower ride has been decorated to closely resemble NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and will play a significant role in helping the visitors experience the weightlessness that is synonymous with space exploration. The intensity of the virtual reality that visitors are expected to experience is nothing short of immense. A combination of the best technology and the visitors’ imagination will help immerse them in the virtual planet Mars.
Houston Super Bowl Host Committee Reveals “WOW” Factor For SuperBowl LIVE Fan Festival
First, the visitors will ascend as if from a lift off from Earth while wearing virtual reality goggles, where they will leave the earth’s orbit, cruise through cislunar space, rocket past the moon and eventually reach Mars, their ultimate destination. After that, they will descend back to the earth in accelerating motion and arrive in good time to watch the 51st Super Bowl game.
“Astronauts are in free fall continuously,” said Ellen Ochoa, a space shuttle-era astronaut and the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “You can get a few seconds of it at this VR experience at Super Bowl LIVE.”
Future Flight the destination
Duncan Kennedy, vice president of IDEAS, the company that developed the Future Flight labeled it a destination, an experience and a ride. “This is the first time that we’re aware of that virtual reality display technology has been merged and married with the ride technology of a drop tower into an experience on this scale,” Kennedy said. “As visitors begin to ascend, they’ll begin their virtual journey.”
As a destination, Future Flight will showcase the powerful and impressive hardware that NASA and aerospace companies has recently developed in a bid to enhance space exploration. On board for the ride are industry leaders Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Gruman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Raytheon and Orbital ATK.
“When they get to Mars [virtually] and reach the top of the drop tower, now we transition from the CGI of virtual reality into the very real. We have a 360-degree panoramic image of Mars taken by the rovers that are on the Red Planet,” Kennedy added.
Not only will the visitors learn a great deal about the advanced equipment developed and used by NASA, but they will also engage in numerous fun and educative activities aimed at encouraging and sparking the interest of kids in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
The Presentation Area
For those visitors who do not exactly fancy the idea of experiencing short- lived weightlessness while travelling through space, there will be a presentation area just outside the attraction. There, you can still experience virtual reality while learning a great deal about NASA and space as a whole.
Summary
The Future Flight attraction is certainly impressive and a mark of ingenuity for both the hosts and NASA. One has to admire the creativity, courage and brilliance that went into the creation and realization of the memorable fan experience plan.
“The Host Committee has declared Super Bowl LI as the Super Bowl of the Future in the ‘City of the Future,” stated Sallie Sargent, the president and CEO of the Houston Host Committee. “Nothing says ‘future’ like space exploration.”
Doubtless, the attraction will pull people by the droves to the Super Bowl Fan Festival that will run for a few days prior to the game. This is because the feeling of weightlessness of space exploration is one that is usually reserved for astronauts. Giving ordinary people a chance to get the feel of it is nothing short of excellent. It certainly deserves appreciation and praise.
Sports Techie, I have locked into the new National Geographic original content series, MARS, broadcasting on Mondays. Executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard take the public to MARS on a space adventure to colonize the red planet in the year 2032 presented in a documentary type storyline. The inspiring TV show blends the perspectives of modern day space experts and authors with dazzling sets and visual effects to deliver a drama filled story full of realism derived from the latest research provided by NASA and other space exploration businesses.
Behind the Scenes with Ron Howard | MARS
It seems like yesterday when on July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off on the way to the moon.
The coming together of science fiction, smart people and a drive to go where no person has gone before is mankind’s status quo.
Houston, we have lift off to the journey to MARS at Future Flight Super Bowl Li Live Fan Festival in Houston.
Odds are it will be a hoot.
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