If theslewofrecentandupcominggameson the red planet are any indication, there is a significant amount ofinterestin exploring Earth’s second-closest neighbor. Nobody knows this better than the engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who have put together a virtual tour of Mars using the latest tech gadgets alongside images from the Curiosity rover and terrain data collected via satellite.
It started with theOculus Riftheadset being used to view panoramic images taken by Curiosity, and eventually led to using theVirtuix Omnito simulate an actual walk on the surface of Mars. Sadly, watching a YouTube video of somebody else taking a virtual tour is probably the closest most of us will ever get to actually traveling to Mars. At the very least, we can all sit around listening to “The Case for Mars” while hoping that JPL makes this project publicly available at some point.
NASA JPL takes a VR tour of Mars with Oculus Rift and Virtuix Omni (video)[Engadget]
