Humanity can not be dispensed with. This is an axiom. Civilization can temporarily turn away from him, having taken up other things, not always peaceful matters, but, in the end, she will be forced to return to the topic of space exploration — In the worst case, in order to just survive. There are many disputes about this, and the spectrum of opinions is very wide, from the pessimistic «inappropriate» To optimistic «Give a base on Mars by 2020!». But one thing is clear: right now there is a revival of interest in space, space research and everything that is connected with them. Alas, our generation did not see apple trees on Mars and the next generation, current schoolchildren, regardless of their race, gender and nationality, will go forward.
As you know, for children you need to write in the same way as for adults, only better. This fully applies to the popularization of the ideas of space development. The developers of the new Lockheed Martin project called Generation Beyond, it seems, are perfectly familiar with this thesis and understand its meaning. The purpose of the project, according to the creators, is to make students a more attractive STEM path (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), that is, natural and engineering sciences that are tightly related to the development of space. And this is right, since for such a large -scale task as the development of space, a lot of competent specialists will be required in a wide variety of industries. The project itself looks quite straightforward and represents an ordinary yellow school bus, a very characteristic element of many residential areas of the United States.
The first Martian today, most likely, is still going to school
But this bus, thanks to advanced virtual reality technologies, is able to carry children not on a long -bored road to school, but on the surface of the Red Planet. Its windows are dull, special display panels are installed instead. Something similar is used in advanced simulators for teaching pilots and, probably, LM experts have used the same technologies so that the image for «window» It looked and moved realistic, not creating a feeling of artificiality. In total, students are available for trips about 520 square kilometers of Mars, and outside the window «Astobus» You can see not only landscapes, but also how, according to modern scientists, the Martian City Colonia should look like. Judging by the reaction of children, «Astobus» They really liked it. It remains only to regret that in our childhood such technologies did not exist.
It is possible that one of the trips will become a turning point in the fate of a student and in the future he will become one of those who develop and build spaceships, creates projects of extraterrestrial colonies and so on. And some of the children shown in the video can actually step on the soil of the Red Planet in the foreseeable future. The LM project also offers other opportunities to get to know the technique, theory and practice of space research. Unfortunately, in Russia, things with the popularization of space among the younger (and senior) generation are far from the best. And it would be nice to adopt the experience of Lockheed Martin and supplement it with its own unique developments, because, after all, it is to us that the honor of the world’s first orbital manned flight belongs to us. And to whom, as not today’s Russian schoolchildren, to continue the way into space, begun by ancestors.
Source:
- Lockheed Martin