The O'Reilly Radar got hold of some presentation slides from NASA's Daniel Laughlin, intended to have been part of the Digital Library Federation's Fall Forum (Laughlin didn't make it to the event). But some interesting ideas are revealed on NASA's vision for virtual worlds -- and their existing use of them for education, outreach and immersive experiences.

NASA, which started two Second Life islands earlier this year, uses it regularly for its online collaboration internally -- it refers to it, and other 3D online spaces as "immersive synthetic environments," or ISEs. A video entitled "NASA's CoLab Second Life Mission" shows an intriguing use of online worlds, a vision that imagines those on Earth able to converse and share perspectives with astronauts while they are on their space mission:

Laughlin tells the Radar's Peter Brantley:

When NASA returns to the moon in 2020, the people of Earth will be able to share that experience. Not just through the passive medium of television like the last time we went to the moon, but through the virtual experience of a persistent immersive synthetic environment. Kids are starting to use PISE at a very early age already. Nickelodeon and Disney each run their own online worlds. The children who play in those worlds are going to expect more from both their work and play as adult than 2D interactivity. They will expect 3D the same way people today expect cable television and those in the 1970s expected color television.

Virtual worlds and space travel? Futuristic visions collide!
[Via O'Reilly Radar]