Mars Exploration: Want A Guided Tour Of The Red Planet?

While actual travel to Mars and landing on its surface is still a far way off, a new program can reportedly take humans on a virtual tour of the Red Planet, right here from Earth itself - promising to be the next best thing to actually visiting it. Microsoft's HoloLens will reportedly give you a guided tour of various locations on Mars from the Kennedy Space Visitor Complex with its 'Destination: Mars' program until January 1, hence considerably shortening the 34 million mile travel for space enthusiasts. All you have to do is travel to Cape Canaveral in Florida, the location for the program. 

The HoloLens program was created by OnSight, a scientific tool that was a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Microsoft, which was first announced in January 2015, as a means to enable Mars exploration for researchers by giving a virtual 3D environment, viewed through Microsoft's AR headset, HoloLens. The equipment was used after that as the basis for the VR app Mars 2030 for Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard.

Destination: Mars recreates the landscape of Mars through data and images relayed back by NASA's Curiosity rover, which are then placed over the real location of the user. A hologram of Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and JPL scientist Erisa Hines will guide the virtual visitors through the main areas, as well as discoveries, on the planet. 

"The opportunity to get up close and personal with a walk on Mars is so exciting and we can't wait for our guests to experience the thrill of it," said Therrin Protze, COO Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. "We're particularly honored to offerDestination: Mars, offering our guests an experience they can't have anywhere else: a real look into NASA's work on Mars."

A ticket for virtually travelling to Mars will cost $50, which is basically the admission price to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. However, advanced bookings are needed for the show.