About Us

Prof. Patricia Reiff

MTPE, Inc., dba ePlanetarium®, is a woman-owned small business, led by Prof. Patricia Reiff, Founding 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.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to create and distribute affordable and accessible educational technologies to inspire, engage, and educate.

OUR GOALS

  1. To create the best value portable planetarium hardware, software and shows for schools and museums to reach more learners affordably.
  2. To make the systems accessible to differently-abled learners, including safe and easy wheelchair access and multi-language subtitle support.
  3. To pay our staff and suppliers responsibly and use our thin profits for public education events and supporting underserved populations around the world.
  4. To deal honestly and responsibly with all customers, suppliers and friends of all nations, cultures, religion and gender identity.

History

MTPE was founded in 1999 as a way to market software and planetarium shows developed under the "Museums Teaching Planet Earth" Cooperative Agreement funded by NASA/Reason. That HMNS/Rice University collaboration resulted in the first US fullview video planetarium in the world (and the third in the world), and the world's first Earth Science and Space Physics planetarium shows. For more information see our list of HMNS/Rice "Firsts".

The Immersive Earth project was a follow-on NASA Cooperative Agreement, a partnership between Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, HomeRun Pictures, Elumenati, and Sky-Skan Inc. This partnership created and distributed full-dome digital planetarium shows and software, and allowed the development of the "Discovery Dome". From the six original sites, the Discovery Dome network is now well over 350 installations around the world.

In 2013 Rice University signed over to MTPE, Inc, the copyright on all software and shows developed under these cooperative agreements for distribution. ePlanetarium® is an authorized distributor of portable domes, shows, projectors, and software from many of the finest producers in the world. In addition, we offer "on the road" shows nationwide through our extensive and growing outreach partner network.

From a news item about the project: "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. This single projection system is also good for small to medium sized planetariums that want to "go digital" inexpensively.

The "Immersive Earth" Cooperative Agreement has paid for the creation of four new programs: "Earth's Wild Ride," "Dinosaur Prophecy," "Impact Earth" and "Force 5." . It has also helped the Houston Museum of Natural Science make five other shows.

Since the Rice Cooperative Agreements have all expired, ePlanetarium® is fully self-supporting and uses its modest profit margins to keep improving the software and to support outreach efforts.