Nov 04, 2016 11:08 PM EDT By Patrick J, UniversityHerald Reporter

The first time NASA used a full VR system was 20 years ago in which it trained astronauts for repair missions on the Hubble Space Telescope, according to a Training Journal article. All these systems have something in common. They're all massive in size with components so huge they can fill an entire building.

Now, imagine all of those the size of a backpack. Soldiers no longer need to run the same training course over and over again. Scenarios with varying difficulty can be executed that allows the trainee broader experience. He can be put in Bin Laden's backyard or in the Nevada desert fighting aliens.

This, however, is not limited to military use.  In fact, it can be used for civic works that can help regular people working in hazardous environments.  These include, train operators, underground miners and even postal service employees who will largely benefit from this latest simulation technology.  It is trial by fire without the actual fire, which shows the endless possibilities VR poses to the rest of the world.

Virtual reality (VR) is nothing new with regard to training simulations.  It has been around since the 1960s with fully documented flight simulations for pilots, driving simulations, even NASA's Apollo program that used a Lunar-Module docking simulator. 

At the moment, several VR capable backpack-sized PC's by various manufacturers are undergoing development. The latest one is the Zotac VR GO.

Zotac VR Go includes Intel Core i7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card. It also has accommodations for two sticks of DDR4, an M.2 PCIe SSD and a 2.5 inch storage drive. In addition, there's support 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0. The outside features an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, a power port for the HTC Vive and dual Gigabit Ethernet connections, Techspot reported.

Zotac has withheld the exact battery capacity, but all the hardware is powered by two hot-swappable batteries that give around 150 watts for all the components. However users can expect a few hours of usage.

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