Immersive telepresence as an alternative for human exploration

Progress in the information technology field is creating compelling alternatives to direct human exploration of distant planetary surfaces. One such alternative is immersive telepresence where the human explorer is Earthbound but able to remotely interact with a distant environment. Exploration goals for science, operational development and public engagement each have unique requirements on immersive systems. Understanding the future capabilities of these systems is essential for deriving requirements of data volume, bandwidth and latency for future robotic missions. Immersive systems have made significant advances and are now being driven by the entertainment and game industries. These systems allow the observer to experience the virtual environment through head movements and feel immersed into the simulated environment. When the simulation fidelity is equivalent to the observations of an in-situ explorer, the visual experience is the same as being there. How will our feelings toward individual human exploration change when we all have the ability to walk on other worlds and cast our shadows on the rocks? The expectation is that this will tip the balance of an exploration portfolio toward in situ machines over people¹².