Standing on other planets is the Killer app for augmented reality

There, standing on the surface of Mars. You can not pick up this rock at your feet – not yet at least – but you can stand in places that the Curiosity rover has explored, see that orange-yellow sky with red terrain on all sides, and feel ] As if you were in an extraterrestrial world.

If Mars is too pedestrian, you may want to jump 40 light years away from the extraterrestrial surface of planet TRAPPIST-1d. You will see a red star from your point of view, and looking up you will discover six "full moons" that are actually planets only 240,000 km apart. Or maybe you just want to see and feel what a rocket launch looks like, or look at the undeveloped space launch system with exquisite detail.

All of these things have become (virtually) possible in recent years, and that's thanks to some innovative thinkers within NASA.

Strabismus and you can see the American Southwest

Sasha Samochina was once a newly created social media editor at NASA-JPL. But a chance encounter with the possibilities of augmented and virtual reality has changed its trajectory to the agency.

Part of NASA's charter is to launch new research on the world as and when. Samochina saw an opening to incorporate images into YouTube's new 360 video format, changing the way the Jet Propulsion Lab traditionally relays news in the digital age – press releases, images, odd videos here and there.

"I was really excited to do it in a really creative way by incorporating more animated images," she told Popular Mechanics at the Interplanetary Festival, as part of Futurition in Santa Fe, NM. To use years of images in a new digital space, Samochina lives a grand opening with one of our closest planetary neighbors.

Mars is the most studied planet outside the Earth, with dozens of missions over 50 years developing an understanding of the dry, arid and cold red planet. Once, Mars was lush and had oceans, but today it is a terrain both foreign and familiar. Strabismus and you can see the American Southwest. At least for a few minutes.

This Mars-rocky quality, easier to explore than Infernal Venus, a transit time of six months, makes it an easy study in comparative planetary science. It also makes it a fascinating world to present to the public.

"We already have these panoramas of the years and years of the Opportunity mission that are complete panoramas that could be put in 360. So the challenge was accepted by me to try to figure out how to cram it into the API they were coming out, "she says.

Shortly after starting to assemble Panoramic View Opportunity in 2016, the team Curiosity rovers has released another panorama, this time of Gale Crater, the site of an old lake bed.It has become a popular awareness tool, especially because you can snap on a Google cardboard and get a virtual reality print of the planet.

Since then, JPL has used it for other missions.The Cassini mission at Saturn has received a confirmation from the agency, incorporating a 360 view. ° the last moments of the probe as well as a view at the the control of the mission as the craft entered the upper layers of Saturn.

Standing on New Ground

There are other ways the agency catches up with the augmented and virtual reality. NASA is working with Microsoft on the HoloLens platform, which will guide engineers and scientists through a virtual Mars as they move, for example, on the Curiosity robot. This can help these scientists discover an interesting feature to explore by immersing them on the red planet.

Samochina also helped engineers take CAD models and turn them into 3D visualizations. These, in turn, were presented outside the agency as part of the Spacecraft AR platform which puts a Mars rover or a giant rocket in the palm of your hand.

"My end of everything is always," Here you go everyone, here is something that scientists and engineers are working on the JPL, I want you to be part of the story, I want you to be excited, "she says.

There have been some other applications of the device. He not only took the astronaut training and turned it into an immersive experience and gave a 3D view of the long-delayed space launch system, but also recorded rocket launches for virtual reality consumption . Oh, and created a whole planetary experience based on a world at 40 light-years away.

The TRAPPIST-1 system includes seven worlds the size of a Earth around a cool star at 40 light-years away. All seven could be considered in the vast habitable zone of their star. Taking the information they had on the star and his planet collection, JPL created a view from the surface of TRAPPIST-1d. Put on the right equipment and you can stand on the surface of this extraterrestrial world, see its star the size of Jupiter, and see the six planetary neighbors in the sky as if they had seven partial or full moons in the sky . [19659024LaNASAneconcernepasseulementlessondesrobotiquesbiensûrmaisaussilesexplorateurshumainsSeloncequevousdemandeznouspourrionsmarchersurMarsdansles20à30prochainesannéesCessixmoissurMarspourraientpourlesastronautesêtreunepériodedifficileVRpourraitlesimmergerdansdesmondesvirtuelsloind'unvaisseauclaustrophobeImaginezunevidéo360delamaisonlorsd'unévénementfamilialUnHoloLenspourraitaboutiràunoutilmédicalpuissantquipourraitsauverdesviesentransitversnotretoutpetitvoisin

"The Human Factor in the & # 39; AR and VR will be extremely important not only to keep your sanity, but also to perform surgery someone & # 39;. A when his body is scanned and you do not know how to do the operation, "says Samochina." That kind of sci-fi stuff I think will become a reality. Think through these … I'm excited to this subject. "

And maybe once they get there, we can get a video 36 0 rebroadcast from the first time that humanity set foot on another planet in our first step beyond the moon.