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Lockheed Martin's Mars Experience Bus outside the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Ala., on Friday, March 24, 2017. (Submitted photo)
Want to take a ride on Mars? You can do that free this weekend in Lockheed Martin's Mars Experience Bus. It's the first immersive virtual reality passenger vehicle, the company says, and it's in town for this weekend's regional robotics competition.
The bus projects VR images of the Martian landscape on the windows of a school bus. When the bus moves, the landscape changes. Ditto when the bus turns.
This is part of Lockheed Martin's Generation Beyond program to support STEM education. The company says there'll be 2.4 million unfilled jobs in science, technology, engineering and math in 2018. "In order to make it to Mars and further into deep space," the company says, "we must have the skilled workforce to get the job done.
The bus will be parked outside the Von Braun Center's South Hall from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m. - except when it's driving on Mars.