Erisa Hines, a driver for the Mars Curiosity rover, based at JPL, also talks to participants in “Destination: Mars.” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Microsoft
No need to wait around for NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) to be built; NASA is opening the gate to Mars THIS SUMMER. Yep we are talking a matter a months away! Microsoft has teamed up with NASA to use their HoloLens to simulate walking on Mars. This exhibit, Destination Mars, will be a brand new installation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center which has much more reasonable flight fares than to the Red Planet itself.
Microsoft had originally joined forces with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create the Onsight Program to aid scientists working on the data analysis from the Curiosity Rover. Using the information collected by Curiosity, the two were able to create a virtual world for the NASA scientists. Now NASA has decided to share this program with the public and give us an opportunity to live on Mars’s landscape right here on Earth.
While you may be thinking this exhibition couldn’t get much cooler, you may be pleased to know your tour guide is non other than Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin alongside rover driver Erisa Hines.
Happy Exploring!
