Images: Hubble spacewalk simulator

A new project from NASA and DigitalSpace, the Educational Spacewalk simulator, is designed to give students, educators and others a way to experience what astronauts aboard the space shuttle will be doing when they walk in space to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

With the help of NASA Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center/Neutral Buoyancy Lab, DigitalSpace took underwater training video and analyzed it frame by frame in order to create the most realistic models and spacewalks.

Here, the simulation interface is shown, including the options to jump to spacewalks, to access camera views, to fast forward, or to find lost items.

The simulator requires a Windows computer and a good 3D graphics card.

In this image from the spacewalk simulator, virtual astronauts are working to remove a WFC2 camera.

Here's a closer look at a virtual astronaut retrieving the WFC3 camera from a carrier in the space shuttle's cargo bay.

This view, in the spacewalk simulator, shows the Earth passing below the Space Shuttle.

A virtual astronaut works on removing the Hubble's COSTAR, or Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement.

A virtual astronaut works on replacing the Hubble Space Telescope's batteries. An additional part of the simulator is a game in which users try to find five items hidden around the Hubble telescope. Those who locate all five will receive a "surprise."