Microsoft and NASA Team Up to Take You on a Tour of Mars Visitors to Kennedy Space Center will be able to take a mixed reality tour of the planet this summer.
By Nina Zipkin
While NASA likely won't send astronauts to Mars until the 2030s, the agency teamed up with Microsoft to give people on Earth a sense of what it would be like to explore the red planet for themselves, thanks to a new exhibition opening this summer at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
With Destination: Mars, visitors can put on Microsoft's HoloLens mixed reality headsets and take a 3-D interactive tour led by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Curiosity Mars Rover driver Erisa Hines. The tour will showcase actual images captured by the Rover, allowing the users to feel as if they are exploring the areas of the planet where the Rover has been.
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The exhibit will utilize OnSight, HoloLens technology developed by Microsoft and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to help the Curiosity team make decisions about where the Rover should go next.
