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NASA is using Hologram-style doctors like Star Trek: Voyager

By Rachel Carrington

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - APRIL 27: In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on a monitor inside firing room four, on April 27, 2022 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission is the fourth crew rotation of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti launched at 3:52 a.m. ET, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images)
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - APRIL 27: In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, Jessica Watkins, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are seen as they depart the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building on a monitor inside firing room four, on April 27, 2022 at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission is the fourth crew rotation of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket, part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Lindgren, Hines, Watkins, and Cristoforetti launched at 3:52 a.m. ET, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. (Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images) /
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NASA just used a holographic doctor like Star Trek: Voyager. 

Once upon a time, a holographic doctor was the stuff of science fiction like Star Trek: Voyager. That series provided an emergency medical hologram, played by Robert Picardo, (The Doctor) complete with sarcasm and dry one-liners. He was funny and fascinating, but he wasn’t real. The only doctors that are real are the ones whose offices we pay out the nose to visit. At least, that was the case until now. But NASA is changing things.

According to Forbes, in a recent test, NASA flight surgeon, Josef Schmid and his team were transformed into holograms on the International Space Station. While Dr. Schmid’s hologram was up in space, he even shared the “Live Long and Prosper” salute to celebrate the wonders of technology and space.

NASA is exploring as much as Star Trek: Voyager did.

"While holoporting is new to NASA, it’s an option that would make medical technology avaiable to far, out of reach areas which would be impossible for a human being to visit. Dr. Schmid hailed this as a new manner of human communication across vast distances. And it would open the door to life-changing and perhaps life-saving ways of human exploration.“It is a brand-new way of human exploration, where our human entity is able to travel off the planet. Our physical body is not there, but our human entity absolutely is there.”"

And the best part about this news is that NASA plans to continue the tests on the space station as it wants to pursue medical capabilities for the moon and Mars. Whether or not the holographic doctors would be able to perform actual procedures as The Doctor did aboard Voyager isn’t clear. Though Dr. Schmid said the human entity would be present, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it would be capable of life-saving surgery…at least not yet. With NASA continuing its research and development, that is, most likely, only a matter of time.

Next. Watch: Video shares the “I’m a doctor” lines from Star Trek. dark

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