VIVE Focus 3 VR headset joins astronauts in space for a mental health mission

Life on the ISS isn't all floating around and enjoying the view. It's pretty cramped, and there's a ton of work to do. It's like being stuck in a small, busy office with the same faces, 24/7, and for months! So, it is supper important to find ways to relax, and that's where the VR headset comes in.

HTC VIVE had to get clever with this one. See, up in space, things don't quite work the same. The VIVE Focus 3 is engineered specifically for microgravity conditions. Ordinary VR headsets such as Meta Quest, PSVR2, and Valve Index rely on Earth's gravity for orientation, but in the weightlessness of space, they are prone to drifting, causing motion sickness. HTC VIVE’s ingenuity led to a custom solution–a controller or VIVE wrist Tracker that's anchored, providing a stable reference point for the headset, a technique adapted from SimulatorVR mode used in immersive VR simulators on Earth. (Via VIVE Blog)

The chosen VR content is all about mental wellness. Astronauts get to escape to peaceful environments like the mountains and watch the sunset, they can listen to the waves at the sea or watch the dolphins swim with 360° therapy videos. All these videos were picked by Commander Mogensen himself. It's like taking a virtual vacation when you can't exactly hop on a plane.

So, as these astronauts are working hard out there in the stars, they’ve now got a virtual way to take a breather and keep their minds as fit as their bodies. Pretty cool, right?