If the closest you’ve ever come to exploring Mars is nibbling on a chocolate bar, you’ll likely be excited that, by putting on a Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset, you can now explore the Red Planet’s rocky terrain.<\/p>\n
Yes, it’s very much a virtual experience – but also a great indicator of how far the technology has come, not to mention a hint at how much further it could go.<\/p>\n
We all know the story of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon – but, over the last 70 years, various strategies for human travel to Mars haven’t even left the planning stages<\/a>. In 1985, Buzz Aldrin, who accompanied Armstrong on his Moon mission, began work on an ambitious Mars trip intended to ultimately help batches of astronauts to reach the planet.<\/p>\n That work hasn’t yet culminated in an actual manned journey to Mars, but Aldrin does appear as the holographic tour guide for members of the public sampling the recently-opened mixed reality experience “Destination: Mars”<\/a>. Based at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, this Microsoft-NASA collaboration enables users to virtually walk around the Red Planet.<\/p>\n While we imagine that it could be a long time before Mars appears as a listing in your Virgin Atlantic brochure, trying out Destination: Mars could nonetheless leave you feeling like something of a space tourist. Several actual Mars sites have been recreated – and authentically, too, thanks to the use of hi-res imagery from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover.<\/p>\nAn “incredible” mixed reality experience<\/h2>\n