Walk on Mars with Buzz Aldrin

NASA and technology giant Microsoft have teamed up to create ‘Destination: Mars’, a guided tour of Mars using the HoloLens headset technology that helped scientists plan the Curiosity rover’s activities on the Red Planet. The ‘Destination: Mars’ exhibit will open at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Key facts:

• The technology will offer people a virtual tour of an area of Mars with astronaut Buzz Aldrin in an interactive exhibit using the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset.
• Aldrin, an Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon in 1969, will serve as the “holographic tour guide” on the journey.
• Guests will “visit” several sites on Mars, reconstructed using real images from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since August 2012. 

“Mixed reality” means virtual elements are merged with the user’s actual environment, creating a world in which real and virtual objects can interact.