NASA and Microsoft launched a mixed reality tool that would allow users to wander the Red Planet.
Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Microsoft worked jointly to develop OnSight, a mixed-reality tool to incorporate the daily grind with interplanetary dimension.
Destination: Mars
This summer, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, as a holographic tour guide, will take guests on a journey using the mixed reality tool during an interactive exhibit entitled "Destination: Mars."
The tool uses the OnSight software fed with processed images taken by the Curiosity rover. The images can be viewed through the HoloLens of Microsoft. With this, the user can virtually experience the surroundings on Mars, excluding the harsh conditions of the planet, of course.
JPL's Erisa Hines, who drives the Curiosity Mars Rover will also be preset holographically to lead participants in areas on Mars where exciting discoveries were made by scientists.
"This experience lets the public explore Mars in an entirely new way. To walk through the exact landscape that Curiosity is roving across puts its achievements and discoveries into beautiful context," said Doug Ellison, JPL visualization producer.
OnSight On Mars
What makes the tool special over virtual reality Oculus?
"Our strength is that we combine all those images and build one consistent 3D model of Mars," explained Alex Menzies, who led JPL's software development for augmented and virtual reality. "Then, we put it on somebody's head and we render not through the rover camera model, but straight in the human eye, with a human perspective at a human scale."
OnSight was primarily developed to help scientists on ground to study the Red Planet in detail. Just recently, a JPL researcher was able to pinpoint the area of transition between two rock formations on Mars.
JPL Curiosity science team member Abigail Fraeman said that OnSight allows data analysis to have a more natural feel. As if they are in the field while conducting their studies. The experience gives them a more intuitive idea of the Martian geology.
JPL is presently working on mixed-reality tools that can support astronauts in the International Space Station and spacecraft engineers.
American astronaut Scott Kelly who recently returned after spending a year in space has used the application while fighting off invading aliens in space.
By having a tool that would allow astronauts in space to communicate with ground scientists, space engineering and other scientific efforts would significantly improve, said Jeff Norris, who serves as the OnSight project manager.
See the technology below.
