NASA has outlined extraordinary plans to use a "new manner of human communication" to send people, such as doctors, on Earth to space and allow astronauts to speak with their loved ones.
Holoportation is described as a type of capture technology that allows high-quality 3D models of people to be reconstructed, compressed and transmitted live anywhere in real-time.
In October 2021, NASA flight surgeon Dr Josef Schmid, industry partner AEXA Aerospace CEO Fernando De La Pena Llaca, and their teams were the first humans “holoported” from Earth into space.
This allowed astronaut Thomas Pesquet to have a two-way conversation with live images of Schmid and De La Pena while onboard the International Space Station.
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“This is a completely new manner of human communication across vast distances,” Schmid said.
“Furthermore, it is a brand-new way of human exploration, where our human entity is able to travel off the planet.
"Our physical body is not there, but our human entity absolutely is there.
"It doesn't matter that the space station is traveling 17,500 mph and in constant motion in orbit 250 miles above Earth, the astronaut can come back three minutes or three weeks later and with the system running, we will be there in that spot, live on the space station.”
NASA now has plans to use this technology to allow people on Earth to travel to space while allowing astronauts to return.
In a statement, the space agency said: "We'll use this for our private medical conferences, private psychiatric conferences, private family conferences and to bring VIPs onto the space station to visit with astronauts."
Schmid added: "Imagine you can bring the best instructor or the actual designer of a particularly complex technology right beside you wherever you might be working on it.
"Furthermore, we will combine augmented reality with haptics.
"You can work on the device together, much like two of the best surgeons working during an operation.
"This would put everyone at rest knowing the best team is working together on a critical piece of hardware."
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