The Space Force Will Soon Enter the Metaverse
“Metaverse” has become a buzzword in tech recently and it seems to invoke a passionate response both from its proponents and detractors. What is undeniable though is that many big companies are beginning to see the potential the metaverse has to offer and have begun dumping large sums of money into developing ways to utilize this technology to their advantage. You can now add the U.S government and military to that list of big players who hope to harness the metaverse to their advantage.
The Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the U.S. Space Force, Lisa Costa, recently spoke at the AFCEA NOVA Space Force IT conference where she mentioned how her team plans to explore ways they can build their own metaverse to help better train their guardians. Lisa noted that it would be a smart idea for them to “take advantage of the industry’s massive investments in immersive digital technology and develop a virtual environment for guardians.”
In her talk, she noted that 86% of U.S. airmen and guardians from the ages of 18 to 34 view themselves as gamers. In a military metaverse, service members could collaborate and conduct a multitude of training exercises. Many businesses across the tech industry have begun to construct realistic and physically accurate digital representations to simulate real-world and natural environments and the Space Force intends to be one of the next on this list.
Costa went on to add, “While sailors go to sea to learn naval warfare and soldiers go to the field for combat drills, guardians don’t get to go to space unless they become NASA astronauts.”
Costa continued, “The only way they experience their domain of operations is with a display of visual data.”
She noted that a virtual reality environment can help provide guardians with “situational awareness and understanding what their options are so they can make better decisions.” This is the vision they’re looking to do next.
This has exciting potential, especially when you think of the possibilities of pairing a virtual reality space environment with zero gravity environments. This could potentially lead to the most realistic earth-based training ever for both the Space Force and NASA.
And with many multi-billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson spending large amounts of time and money to further space exploration and development through the private sector, tools like this could even further accelerate the learning curve and abilities of those brave men and women who actually make the voyages up and out of Earths atmosphere.