Do you know that virtual reality simulations and video games are designed not just to provide players with so much pleasure? They can bring an average human closer than ever to never-before and the once-in-a-lifetime experience of life on Mars.
For most people particularly the gamers, these so-called "pop-culture tours" turn the real missions to colonize the Red Planet which both the private companies like SpaceX and NASA feel quite more attainable.
In an online article, CΙnet posted on its website, James Burk, IT director of Mars Society, a space advocacy nonprofit said, "these games, along with other pop culture representations of Mars" have greatly augmented "interest in human missions to Mars."
Specifically, the novel, The Martian's movie adaptation in 2015, became a major turning point in the piquing of public inquisitiveness in colonizing Mars. And now, the plan of SpaceX to Mars an unmanned mission, com 2022, the soonest, according to Burk, "is throwing gasoline on it all."
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Surviving Mars
Just a few hours after the announcement of Surviving Mars during the first half of 2017, the public took the internet to initiate an argument on how much of the video game was realistic and accurate, and how much would be considered as science fiction.
People even went so far until they reached the point of exchanging formulas to identify "whether wind turbines would indeed" be a credible way to produce electricity on Mars, just as what they do in the game.
Surviving Mars producer, Bisser Dyankov said, they know that whatever they do, there are (and will always be) "smarter people willing to go way deeper" to test their ideas.
He added, they know too, that their idea touches something and motivates people to go and do the math, ask questions and search for the answers, themselves.
A Detailed Game
Surviving Mars, as to how the gaming enthusiasts and tech-savvies describe it, is incredibly detailed gameplay. One sets up a mission by selecting a sponsor who will impact the manner of spending money.
Then, he gets to choose his rocket, his colonists and his commander by their profession and the advantages they can provide. One example is the selection of inventor that will get a player faster drones, the politician then, increases his funding, and the rocket scientist gives him an extra rocket at the beginning.
Many more decisions transpire into launching the gamer's first rocket filled with drones to construct infrastructure which includes what to bring and the place to land while balancing both resources and funding.
Also part of the game's details is the allocation of resources for the construction including oxygen, power, and water. The gamer gets to select a research area too, like robotics, physics, and biotech from which they can offer a distinctive advantage down the line.
The bottom line of it all is that the developers depended heavily on the resources of NASA which include research concepts and topological maps.
As far as VR is concerned, it is advantageous for training purposes in high-cost, high-risk situations which include Mars and space exploration. This was according to Tuong Nguyen, an analyst from Gartner, a global research company.
For over two decades now, NASA has used VR for the replication of harsh situations of space as a means for astronauts' training.
