A lifelike, digital image of a NASA doctor projected as a hologram on the International Space Station. This technology was developed by Microsoft and was first used by European Space Agency astronauts.
If you’re familiar with Star Trek, you must also know that the crew on the Starship Enterprise can “teleport” and travel to other ships or worlds. Although the new technology cannot fully achieve this, it does implement a similar one.
The new communication technology is called “holoportation”, which is a mixture of “hologram” and “teleportation”. Holoportation enables audio and visual interactions between scientists on Earth and astronauts who have gone off Earth.
Josef Schmid and his team also moved virtually to the ISS. Their images were captured by a high-tech camera, compressed as a data file, and beamed to the ISS.
Astronauts on the space station were able to view the hologram with Microsoft’s “mixed reality headset” called HoloLens, a headset that blends digital doctors with the ISS environment. The new technology could greatly improve the safety and success of long-term space travel.
“Imagine you could bring the best instructor for what you’re working on, or the real designer, especially when it comes to complex technology,” Schmid said.
Still, the large distances between space stations and other planets cause a delay between crew and ground crew. For example, if communication with Mars is to be made using this method, there may be a 20-minute delay.
Microsoft first debuted the HoloLens in 2015, and while other companies like Meta have tackled virtual reality, augmented reality has made great strides. Although buying a HoloLens for the end user may not seem attractive at the moment, the company is developing HoloLenses for military applications and has signed a $22 billion deal with the US Army for this purpose.
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