One Year Closer
by Rick Champagne, NVIDIA Media & Entertainment Industry Manager
Greetings, fellow Martians.
NASA sent the first of 120 HP ZBook Mobile Workstations powered by NVIDIA Quadro graphics to the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2016. I remember watching in awe from our offices as the first ZBook payload launched, knowing that our technology was going to play an important role in the daily lives of the astronauts on the ISS – from critical health monitoring systems and communicating with family back on Earth, to taking a break to enjoy the latest movies made by our customers.
Inspired by this experience, HP and NVIDIA challenged ourselves to partner again in a way that was truly meaningful and that would have a major positive impact on the world. NASA already had the stated objective of getting humans to Mars by 2030, and they’re well down that path now. We wanted to look beyond that plan and envision something that had never been done before: How can we reinvent life on Mars by creating a second home for 1 million humans? By asking this one really BIG question, many others followed. For example:
- The grand vision of getting 1 million people to Mars will take many decades to accomplish. What new technologies will exist that far into the future?
- What role will robots play in preparing and terraforming the planet prior to human arrival?
- How will Mars evolve over time to become more hospitable for families and communities?
- How will artificial intelligence play a role in transportation, habitat, and sustaining human life on Mars?
- Using AI, when will we be able to capture the entirety of an individual’s consciousness and create a true digital double that can live in a datacenter or robot on Mars?
- What will virtual reality and augmented reality become in 20, 30, or 100 years? How will other forms of entertainment have evolved by the time 1 million humans settle on Mars?
- How will we be able to express some of these concepts in VR today, or six months from now when we unveil Mars Home Planet VR at SIGGRAPH 2018?
Please share your thoughts on any of the questions above in the forums, and challenge us all with new ones!
When looking several decades into the future, it’s easy to imagine that a tiny wearable from HP and NVIDIA could have the raw compute power of an entire GPU farm. In fact, your current smartphone likely has more processing power than all of NASA did when they put the first humans on the moon in 1969.
Mars Home Planet’s Concept Phase saw some incredible entries and winners. The 3D Modeling Phase is in full swing, but will soon come to a close. I’m excited to see how many of these models will come to life in the Rendering Phase (GPU-rendered hopefully!), and of course finally become immersive and interactive in VR with the help of our partner and friends at the Technicolor Experience Center.
HP Mars Home Planet is now over 62,000 members strong, and together we truly have the ability to reinvent life on Mars. This is our chance to influence the world’s vision for what a home for 1 million humans on Mars could be like, so please join us in the forums, submit your designs to get a shot at winning great prizes, and let’s keep the conversation going!
Warm Regards,
Rick Champagne
NVIDIA Media & Entertainment Industry Manager
Twitter: @Rick_Champagne
Rick Champagne leads global industry strategy and marketing for Media & Entertainment at NVIDIA. Working closely with customers and industry partners, Rick helps guide marketing and strategy for the Film, TV, Games, Broadcast, and Advertising industries. With a long history of industry management for products and solutions such as HP Z Workstations, the Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya Entertainment Creation Suites, Softimage, Mudbox, and Painter, Rick has been in the service of Artists and other Creative Professionals for nearly two decades. Rick is a licensed pilot and aviation geek, and spends much of his personal time in his technological and creative pursuits. He studied Graphics in college and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration.
