PARTICIPANTS HAVE ACCESS TO A DIGITAL WORLD THAT SIMULATES THE TERRAIN AND GRAVITATIONAL CONDITIONS OF MARS.
NASA started a new crowdsourcing contest to build out a VR Mars simulator. The agency plans to use the VR simulator to train the crew for all the possible scenarios it may encounter on Mars.
- NASA plans to send a crewed mission to the Red Planet in the mid-2030s.
- The agency has already begun taking steps for crew preparation, including identifying thousands of tasks for astronauts.
- The virtual simulator gives NASA more flexibility to design training scenarios at a much lower price.
- Traditionally the agency has to rely on expensive physical simulators, including human centrifuges and large mock terrains.
- NASA is using the crowdsourcing platform HeroX for the contest.
- 2,300 participants have reportedly entered the contest.
