VR Sally Ride Tour

Virtual reality tour of America’s newest research ship, R/V Sally Ride.

Experience a virtual reality tour aboard Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s newest research vessel, R/V Sally Ride. This app takes viewers on an interactive tour of the exterior of the ship, from the working deck just a few feet above the surface of the ocean all the way to the mast more than 70 feet up. See what it’s like to live and work aboard one of the world’s most capable oceanographic research vessels as a crew member or scientist. Check out state-of-the-art equipment used to deploy and recover scientific instrumentation used to study the ocean. On the back deck is the ship’s A-frame, which can handle a 30,000-pound load. Make your way to the upper decks to see the winches and cranes as they stand ready to lower research gear over the side of the ship. Each winch has 10,000 meters of wire spooled onto it, and the crane can lift more than 10,000 pounds, even in rolling seas.

View this app using any phone with a gyro sensor, or for the full experience view using Google Cardboard or a similar virtual reality viewer that is equipped with an input screen trigger.

Operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, R/V Sally Ride is part of the United States academic research fleet. The ship is 238 feet long, weighs 3,034 gross tons, carries 45 people (25 scientists and 20 mariners), and has an endurance of 40 days at sea over a range of 10,545 nautical miles. As a general-purpose research vessel, the ship is configurable to support all oceanographic disciplines including geology, geophysics, physical oceanography, biology, acoustics, chemistry, atmospheric physics and much more. As an Ocean Class ship, Sally Ride serves throughout the Pacific Ocean, from the polar ice margins to the steamy tropics.

More information about R/V Sally Ride and the amazing scientists who sail on board is available online:

scripps.ucsd.edu/ships/sally-ride