There were three working groups at the workshop. Please click on the group you participated in and document the ideas and discussions that took place!

1) NASA Missions and Virtual Environments: How can we best use NASA data in virtual worlds and use virtual worlds to support NASA missions?

NASA Ames' working partnership with Google has provided a wealth of NASA data to Google's Earth mapping efforts and high fidelity Google models of the Moon and Mars not far behind. NASA mission data and vehicle models can enrich virtual worlds and web environments in new ways just now being explored. This data can be also used to provide tools for mission planners (such as landing site selection and surface operations) as well as environments for public outreach and education. How can NASA's near term missions (such as LCROSS) work in partnership with virtual world developers to support the full life-cycle of a mission from conceptualization to vehicle engineering, launch, mission operations and access for the public? 

2) Economic Community: What can NASA do to help initiate a viable economic community of space-oriented virtual worlds enterprises?

How can NASA encourage individuals, universities and companies to develop virtual worlds technologies for the space industry? Could NASA provide seed funding through special grants, enage in cooperative agreements or sponsor contests or Centennial Challenges in the virtual worlds arena? Would it make sense for NASA to fund the development of a massively multiplayer online game with a "reality space" theme similar to the model used by the Army in its successful online game "America's Army"? Would such a game or game modules reach a new generation and encourage them to seek careers in space?

3) 2020 Vision: how will virtual worlds be used in the exploration of space in the year 2020 in support of mission planning and operations?

With multiple nations likely to be aiming to return human beings to the lunar surface by 2020 and a large number of new robotics scientific missions in the works, how will the intersection of space and virtual environments look in the year 2020? Will astronauts wear advanced augmented reality displays so that anyone back on Earth can be "virtually present" on board their spacecraft? Will robotic and human piloted traverse and dig in lunar and planetary surfaces based on real-time terrain meshes? Will humanity build its first lunar base using advanced tele-robotics, sparing cost and reducing risk to human crews? Will spacecraft be infused with complex adaptive software systems to allow them to continuously monitor vehicle health and repair themselves, allowing human crews to travel much farther than present "weeks or at most months to failure" limitations permit? Will the public on Earth experience and navigate vehicles in space environments and planetary surfaces with high fidelity immersive virtual environments and "all get to go"?