NASA Beamed a Doctor to The ISS in a World-First 'Holoportation' Achievement

This is a house call that has never been done before. In a first for telepresence communication, a NASA flight surgeon washoloported to the International Space Station, appearing and conversing as a virtual presence in real time, hundreds of miles above the surface of Earth.

You are not too far off if it sounds like Star Trek.

This is not science fiction. The illusion was made possible thanks to Microsoft'sholoportation technology, which lets users interact with 3D representations of remote participants in real time.

This is a completely new way of human communication, where our human entity is able to travel off the planet.

The team members are in a session. Thomas Pesquet is an astronomer.

Holographic projections that appear to hover in the air for anyone to see are not the same as holograms that use an augmented reality headset to be able to perceive and interact with the captured individual.

Thomas Pesquet, who was on board the International Space Station and wearing a headset, had a two-way conversation with Fernando De La Pena Llaca, the CEO of AEXA, and members of his medical team.

For several years, Microsoft's technology has been used in various stages of development, but never for something as ambitious as this: connecting Earth-based medical researchers with astronauts on mission.

It is this kind of capability that could be important for future space-exploration missions. This way, scientists could virtually interact with real-time 3D representations of remote participants on Earth, space stations, or other spacecraft, enabling collaborations that can be much more involving and immersive than standard 2D video calls.

Our physical body is not there, but our human entity is.

Imagine if you could bring the best instructor or the actual designer of a particularly complex technology right beside you wherever you were working on it.

A NASA flight surgeon is on the International Space Station. Thomas Pesquet is an astronomer.

The next step in the technology is to allow two-way interactions.

Pesquet was the only person wearing an augmented reality headset that allowed him to see the other participants as holograms.

If all participants are similarly equipped, the possibilities to jump into someone else's reality could become even more useful for off-world astronauts.

Christian Maender, a research director at space infrastructure company Axiom Space, told the Verge that it plays into opportunities for more longer duration spaceflight and more deep spaceflight.

You are talking about creating a human connection between your crew no matter where they are traveling and back to someone on the planet.