About Us

e-Planetarium is a woman-owned small business, led by Prof. Patricia Reiff, Director of the Rice Space Institute at Rice University. The company was formed as a way to market shows, software, and planetarium technology created by the Immersive Earth project and its partners.

The Immersive Earth project is a partnership between Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, HomeRun Pictures, Elumenati, and Sky-Skan Inc. This partnership was made possible from the "Immersive Earth", a five-year, NASA REASoN funded project that brings together six museums, two universities, and three companies to create and distribute full-dome digital planetarium shows nationwide. View our partners.

E-planetarium is an authorized distributor of portable domes, shows, projectors, and software from our partners. In addition, we offer "on the road" shows nationwide through our extensive and growing partner network.

"Our planetarium shows are truly immersive because they present the viewer with images, in front, behind, above and on both sides of their seat," said institute director Patricia Reiff, professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice and the principal investigator on the "Immersive Earth" grant.

"People love these shows, and they are a great vehicle to teach Earth and space science, but unfortunately full-sized planetariums require six projectors, working in concert with six different computers."

"Immersive Earth" aims for a wider audience through the development and distribution of a small, fully portable system that uses an inflatable dome and single-projector display.

The "Immersive Earth" grant will also pay for the creation of three new programs: "Earth's Wild Ride," which is already in production, "Earth in the Balance" and "Earth in Peril." [this piece from the article in www.spacedaily.com].