Elon Musk, back in August this year, said that he would be showing off a new sort of design interface for rocket development and creation though ‘new’ probably isn’t completely accurate. Movie fans will have seen a more advanced but largely similar interface in the Iron Man films, the difference being that reality is fast catching up to fiction in this case.
Will post video next week of designing a rocket part with hand gestures & then immediately printing it in titanium
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2013
In the video above, SpaceX’s Elon Musk shows off the interface that has been designed for rocket parts. First up is a relatively simple 2D interface using the Leap Motion, then a 3D version of the CAD view is explored. Later a far more interactive version of the view and manipulation of the rocket schematics is seen which uses the Oculus Rift as part of the setup. The best part? Like Tony Stark’s home interface, Musk is able to 3D print a specific titanium part for the rocket engine from this setup.