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I’m at peace with the idea that I won’t be visiting space in my lifetime. The cost of space tourism is out of reach for me and the vast majority of Americans. Yet on a recent Saturday afternoon, thanks to a mix of virtual reality and old-fashioned theatrics, I am on the moon.
Looking to my left, I see strange, abstractly blue lights emerging from the gray, rocky moon landscape. Ducking down, I can spot the stars and piece together various constellations. Ahead, I watch the vehicle I’m standing in — technically a shipping container — move through craters on a monorail.
This is “The Lunar Light: Discovery,” part VR experience, part mini-escape room, part science experiment and part one-act play. Currently running through mid-May in Santa Monica, “Lunar Light” uses a small cast of actors to bring the dream of visiting the moon alive. The VR helps, of course, as our goggles hide any facets of the shipping container from view, but it’s the performances that set the tone and sell the illusion. Throughout, we’ll be tasked with minor actions — mining moon rocks in VR, for instance — and the actors will lead, guide and offer moon tidbits, all with a bit of improv-inspired campiness.
“Lunar Light” is set in the year 2055, when humanity has established a small community on the moon. A mysterious blue-hued mineral has landed on Earth’s natural satellite, and it’s causing strange reactions — people’s emotions are comically off-centered, and power and lighting seem unpredictable. Even a tiny robot — DG-33, sort of cutesy spin on a trash compactor — has developed some quirks, namely a sassy Southern accent.
And yet “Lunar Light” has an underlying mission. The project, which mixes in actual science, is spearheaded by Danielle Roosa, an actor-writer turned space advocate. Roosa’s interest in the cosmos is in her blood, as she is the granddaughter of late Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa. And one of her early gigs was interning at NASA’s Washington, D.C., offices, where she worked in the news and multimedia room.
“I realized a lot of my [college] classmates had no idea what NASA was even doing,” says Roosa, 32. “One person said, ‘I thought NASA was out of business.’ The seed was really planted there.”
Or awakened, rather.
“There’s always this conversation, ‘Why space exploration?’” Roosa says. “I think that understanding our place in the solar system helps us protect our home better. It helps us understand what could happen, maybe different ways of living life, going out there and finding different habits. All of those are for a better Earth. Even when my grandfather went to the moon, people were like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I wasn’t there, but people also say that was the last time America was truly united. ‘Yes, we have to do this. We’re going to land on the moon.’ I do think that space unites people.”
“Lunar Light” is the first major project from Roosa’s firm Back to Space. She has grand ambitions — opening a large-scale immersive facility to house “Lunar Light” and other programs, and taking the experience on the road to various museums. She honed her business acumen after a chance meeting on an airplane with Jim Keyes, a former 7-Eleven and Blockbuster executive, who became a mentor and investor.
The Santa Monica installation is “Lunar Light’s” second pop-up, having had a run in Dallas in 2024. She considers it a proof of concept, the first step in her ultimate goal of building a “10,000-square-foot experience that’s like the Disneyland of space exploration.” Investors were interested but encouraged her to, at least at first, downsize her vision.
“OK, fine,” Roosa says, recalling those conversations. “So we built it out of shipping containers.”
The Santa Monica experience, a little longer than an hour, is only in VR for a fraction of that period. After a short jaunt on the moon and a small gamelike activity in which we mine for virtual minerals, we find ourselves in a lab where we’ll play with various crystals. There’s a Tesla coil, and we will test out various electrical energy reactions. The mood, however, isn’t that of a classroom, as the actor manning the lab plays the scene for laughs — all that electrical energy is wreaking havoc on her mind.
Roosa, whose father was a military pilot, moved often throughout her childhood, and she says she escaped via improv shows like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” That informed “Lunar Light‘s” lighthearted vibe, and after experiencing various actor-driven immersive theater shows, such as one inspired by Netflix series “Bridgerton,” she knew she didn’t want her space exploration experience to rely solely on technology.
“I think human-to-human contact is the only thing that’s going to save us in the world,” Roosa says. “Obviously I like VR, but I think the human connection is what makes the experience.”
“Lunar Light” attempts to use VR to facilitate connection. While in the headsets, we can see our fellow participants. At times, we‘re asked to high-five them.
“Let’s say there’s three different groups,” Roosa says, describing how strangers might be brought together for the experience. “They’re all timid. ‘I don’t know you.’ You put the VR headset on, and all of a sudden they’re high-fiving each other and jumping up and down. It’s almost like an equalizer. By the end of it, they feel like one big group.”
Ultimately, “Lunar Light” builds to a mini escape room puzzle. But don’t expect anything too difficult. Those lightly familiar with escape room challenges should be able to complete it without too much of a fuss. Roosa didn’t want participants to get stuck, as her ultimate goal is creating excitement around space by demystifying it.
Roosa says that many space experiences are “very serious.” She then briefly adopts an exaggerated, deeply male voice. “It is, ‘We are men of science.’ And I’ve always noticed, there is room for some fun. There is room for some comedy. I want people to feel a part of the space conversation.”
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