VR Psyche Inspired Art and Artist Showcase – Psyche Inspired: Art comes Alive

INSTITUTION

Seattle University (SU)

CLASS

Platinum Class (2025 – 2026)

STUDENT TEAM

ACADEMIC GUIDANCE

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The NASA Psyche VR Art Showcase is part of NASA’s public engagement efforts for its mission to the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

NASA requested that team CS.26.17 deliver a VR experience capable of representing diverse 2D, 3D, and musical pieces from the over 130 artists that participated in Psyche Inspired. Part of the team’s early work included scanning 3D pieces with Polycam.

The collection was assembled into a game-like museum experience with distinct thematic spaces, such as the “JPL Plaza” level. The team developed with Unity Game engine, Unity Version Controland the Quest 3.

Part of this teams accomplishments include integrating modern tools such as Meshy to, for example, include paintings as 3D models in a sculpture garden.

The completed project provides NASA with an emotionally compelling platform to showcase Psyche-inspired artwork while bringing the wonder of science to a more diverse audience.

This work was created in partial fulfillment of the Seattle University Capstone Course “CPSC 4870.” The work is a result of the Psyche Student Collaborations component of NASA’s Psyche Mission (https://psyche.ssl.berkeley.edu). “Psyche: A Journey to a Metal World” [Contract number NNM16AA09C] is part of the NASA Discovery Program mission to solar system targets. Trade names and trademarks of ASU and NASA are used in this work for identification only. Their usage does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, by Arizona State University or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of ASU or NASA.