It might take a few more years or maybe a couple of decades for a human to actually step on Mars. But, NASA has plans to let people walk around the great big red planet very soon by combining satellite imagery from NASA JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) with Oculus Rift and Virtuix Omni to create a Mars walking simulator.
Engadget recently did a little interview with the Human Interfaces Engineer Victor Luo. He says that “there’s no real up or down in the space station,” so using the head-mounted virtual display it will be easier to let people feel the “weightlessness when you’re looking up or down.” According to Luo, this simulator is still in its “early days”, but get ready to put your spacesuit on because this could happen sooner than you think.
It’s amazing how a piece of device made for gaming has reached this far, allowing people to explore a different planet. Yet I’m anxiously waiting for someone to make the world available to explore through Oculus Rift so I can set a new record by traveling around the world in a few minutes.
Take a look at the early developer preview of this simulator.
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Roshan Jerad Perera