NASA Langley Research Center employees are looking to utilize virtual reality systems for mission research to educational outreach purposes and other potential applications.The space agency said Wednesday virtual reality technologies such as the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR can replicate a real or imagined environment and simulate a user’s physical presence and environment for interaction.
“One of our goals with the work that we’re doing here is we want to be able to have two engineers, no matter where they are we want them to be able to look at the same virtual scene and communicate with each other and to interact with that scene,†said Josh Kinne, deputy project manager at Langley’s flight projects directorate.
Kinne added that NASA currently works to develop software usage in preparation for virtual reality tools as more options become available in the marketplace.
Dan Cherry, head of NASA Langley’s collaboration and talent development branch, said virtual reality also has potential applications in an interactive classroom session via the space agency’s digital learning network.
