WINNERS 2017

75% of Russians have never left Russia. To them, the rest of our planet feels as remote as Mars. To inspire people to go forth into the unknown we’ve created EARTH7 – the space rover destined for Earth. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put yourself in space pioneers’ shoes and explore a desert located 5000 km away, using a unique space rover and innovative gesture control technology. The immersive augmented reality game gave every pilot a chance to win a ticket to any S7 destination, by collecting 3 life samples, available only on Earth. The whole experience had two crucial parts: Mission Control with rover pilot in Moscow and rover in the Mars-like desert 5000 km away. The Mission Control facility gives you the feeling of real space mission environment. 72 square meters of futuristic, spaceship alike experience zone with 5 meters wide curved screen and specially crafted chair that let you feel as a planetary rover pilot. Each pilot has the mission: find samples of life on Earth: from surfing to K-POP. The collectables are rendered dynamically over live video and placed according to rover GPS data. Magnificent Mars-like desert allowed pilots to get a feeling of a real interplanetary exploration mission. EARTH7 was built to operate autonomously for hours during the live game. It could survive unpredictable human actions and driving on a rough desert surface. The rocker-bogie suspension with aluminum wheels helped the 75 kg machine to overcome obstacles up to 40 cm and drive on inclines up to 45 degrees. A centimeter-accurate GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer were constantly sending the location data to the game server in order to identify the rover’s position whithin the game area.