Upon arriving on Mars, the absence of cell towers would make your phone inoperative. Additionally, the lack of a magnetic field would mean your compass is non-functional.
How would you navigate? How would the base know where you are? How would you keep track of your team on sorties? How would you plan missions? How would you communicate?
Enter MarsComms.
Developed with and for the Mars Society, and incorporating the expertise of scientists, researchers, and technology developers, MarsComms is a hybrid reality solution combining new and traditional technologies to enable communication in environments devoid of standard methods. Utilizing meshtastic beacons, mixed reality headsets, and computational intelligence, MarsComms facilitates the simulation and planning of Mars missions and ensures communication in real-time with both devices and individuals in the Martian landscape of our Earth based analogue, the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS).
We currently have an alpha version of the VR (and MR) experience available for use by astronauts in training on-site and by remote technical mission planners who are preparing for their mission or assisting in the preparation of others.
Assuming you are not among those, yet want more info, we've created this video to provide a detailed demonstration of what you can anticipate from the experience.
Additionally, this video gives a short overview.
Our next step involves making some adjustments in time for a demonstration at the Mars Society conference, scheduled from Thursday, August 8th to Sunday, August 11th at the University of Washington campus (The HUB) in Seattle.
For more details on MarsComms visit https://www.mxtreality.com/projects/marscomms.
For further information about the conference, please visit https://www.marssociety.org/news/2024/03/12/save-the-date-2024-international-mars-society-convention/.
To learn more about The Mars Society and the broader MarsVR project, visit www.MarsVR.com or for the Mars Society, visit https://www.marssociety.org/
And for details about related projects, visit https://www.mxtreality.com/marsvr
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