Exactly one year ago today, the world held its breath as the Curiosity rover settled down on the red terrain of Mars . And in the ensuing 12 months, NASA has received a ton of images from the bot and the satellites floating over the Red Planet. As reported by Geek.com , the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has now gone so far as to recreate walking on Mars with the assistance of an Oculus Rift

Image Source: NASA JPL

Clearly, there's a ton of potential in Oculus VR's headset , with the latest prototype even offering 1080p resolution. But NASA's JPL team was so enamored with the device during a trip to PAX, they purchased one for the lab. And after pairing the Rift with an Omni treadmill, it's possible to walk around in the images sent back by Curiosity.Obviously, we're hoping NASA decides to share this Mars walk with the rest of us some day soon. As Curiosity and Mars-facing satellites send back more imagery, we could one day go on a virtual walking tour of our celestial neighbor.

Matt Clark is a freelance writer covering the world of videogames, tech, and popular culture. Follow him on Twitter @ClarkMatt and MyIGN at Matt_Clark