Volume 8, Number 4     July/August 2000

Live! On a Computer Near You

A recently announced partnership between NASA and Dreamtime Holdings, Inc., will propel the space information age to new heights.

The partnership will deliver the adventures of the space frontier through the new technologies of the digital frontier.

The unprecedented agreement was announced June 2, 2000 at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. It includes provisions to provide, for the first time, high-definition television (HDTV) coverage of astronaut activities aboard the International Space Station and on Space Shuttle missions. It will also create an easily accessible, Web-searchable, digital archive of the best of NASA’s space imagery.

Via the Web, users will be able to watch Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon, look at a blueprint of the lunar module and take a virtual reality tour of Armstrong’s Apollo 11 capsule.

“Not only does this bring the space program into partnership with Silicon Valley,” said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, “but the partnership also puts NASA at the forefront of the information age. This is innovative government at its best.”

The NASA-Dreamtime partnership will provide unprecedented public access to space exploration by creating a state-of-the-art multimedia portal, www.Dreamtime.com. The portal will open the door to thousands of images, sounds, documents, plans and blueprints from NASA’s currently underutilized archives. Rollout of the in-depth portal site will begin within the next several months.

The unparalleled space content will be accessible via Web, wireless, TV and interactive TV devices. Shuttle launches will light up handheld computers and students will be able to watch compelling interactive space programming on TV and the Web. Users will be able to listen in on Mission Control, see the landscape of Mars in 3D from a future Mars lander and watch a Shuttle launch beamed right to a handheld device.

“Our goal of engaging more Americans in the exploration of space will be made possible through this partnership,” Goldin said.

“We’re proud to be partnered with NASA in this historic undertaking,” said Bill Foster, Dreamtime’s chairman and chief executive officer. “To us, space is the great adventure, and this is the perfect marriage of high tech and high emotion. The opportunity to educate and excite is at the heart of this venture.”

The NASA-Dreamtime partnership will also provide the agency with HDTV capability that will give NASA engineers and scientists the most detailed look ever at Shuttle flight operations and at scientific experiments conducted on the Shuttle and on the International Space Station. In addition to other data collection methods, exact and precise digital images will further research capabilities.

Education plays a prominent role throughout the agreement. Educational content planned in the documentaries and TV broadcasts will be linked to educational modules in the portal.

“We plan to vividly convey the space experience into classrooms and living rooms across America,” Foster said. “This partnership intends to explain the complexities of space in an interesting, entertaining and educational way.”

The partnership’s first priority will be to create the Dreamtime.com portal, which will offer the latest in interactive technology. The portal will be designed to provide more complete and in-depth access to information about space by combining video, audio, still photographs, high-resolution images, historical documents and three-dimensional views of spacecraft such as the Mars Sojourner and imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope. The portal’s invigorating content will also include space topic bulletin boards, educational activities and games, chat rooms and e-cards.

A historical public-private partnership between NASA and Dreamtime Holdings, Inc. will allow the public to access a digital archive of NASA's space imagery via www.dreamtime.com.

Dreamtime’s commercial partners in this venture include the Endeavor Agency, Excite@Home, Lockheed-Martin, Sumitomo Bank and Omnicom. Carleton Ruthling will serve as Dreamtime’s president and chief operating officer. Nancy Conrad, widow of former Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad, is the first person to join Dreamtime’s Board of Directors. Dreamtime headquarters will be in leased space located at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

The U.S. Congress declared commercial utilization to be one of the primary goals of the U.S. Space Program when it passed the 1998 Commercial Space Act and directed NASA to actively seek commercial users for the International Space Station. Congress asked NASA to conduct an independent market study to help identify potential commercial uses. One of the most promising commercial markets identified by the study was the utilization of space imagery in the areas of education and entertainment.

NASA publicly solicited offers for commercial collaboration in December 1999, stating its intent to partner with the private sector to create new market opportunities in the multimedia arena. Dreamtime was selected from 12 offers based on criteria published in the announcement. The term of the agreement between NASA and Dreamtime is for seven years with a five-year option.

The Dreamtime partnership maintains NASA’s ability to offer the public its current level of services and does not preclude the agency from participating in other private sector partnerships.