NASA Dreams of an Interplanetary 'Second Life' for Mars Crew

NASA Dreams of an Interplanetary 'Second Life' for Mars Crew

www.wired.com

...NASA thinks it has an answer to the psychological challenge of interplanetary isolation. While aerospace engineers are designing the Ares rockets to be deployed in the Mars missions, a more starry-eyed contingent at NASA is testing networking and virtual reality technologies that they think will connect the first wave of Mars pioneers with their families, friends and colleagues back on Earth, in a 3-D virtual world cut from the mold of Second Life or World of Warcraft.

(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 3/1/2008 by skibtz]

I am not too sure that a game of Quake would be in the offing - those ping times have really got to suffer

But seriously, setting up a virtual world on order to fascilitate exploration on a lengthy timescale is interesting. The isolation in the ISS has to have an impact but imagine being on Mars and having a panic attack!

I think a connection with your family and friends would probably be a life-saver.

I wonder if it will be restricted to friends and family. Imagine being in a 3-d virtual chat with an astronaut on Mars!

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 3/1/2008 by skibtz]

Not saying this is a bad idea, I still think a better idea is to said couples to Mars. I am just thinking the time lag would make it difficult for something like this to work.

reply to post by RedGolem


I totally agree. Send couples up and let them concentrate on the job at hand. I should imagine any manned mission would be restricted to around 6 people. That being the case you would need to make sure everyone got on well with each other!!!