It is an open secret that Elon Musk was part of the inspiration behind the latest cinematic iteration of Iron Man. And we know Musk, who made a cameo appearance in Iron Man 2, is a fan of the genius superhero. But it turns out Iron Man had something particular Musk wanted: so the real-life tech genius made it.

In a series of tweets on August 23, Musk revealed that, inspired by a scene from Iron Man in which the character Tony Stark using a three dimensional holographic display with hand-gesture interface to design his vaunted suit, he and his team had made just such an interface. Moreover, they used it to design an (unspecified) rocket. Here’s the exchange:

Elon Musk

 

In a further exchange, Musk responded to a question by Iron Mask director Jon Favreau that  “We saw it in the movie and made it real. Good idea!” Musk also noted that the holographic interface was quite useful for rocket design – and one could see how moving from 3D hologram to 3D model in a matter of hours – or even minutes – could come quite in handy in the design process. Guess we’ll have to stay tuned for that video….

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Merryl Azriel

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Having wandered into professional writing and editing after a decade in engineering, science, and management, Merryl now enjoys reintegrating the dichotomy by bringing space technology and policy within reach of an interested public. After three years as Space Safety Magazine’s Managing Editor, Merryl semi-retired to Visiting Contributor and manager of the campaign to bring the International Space Station collaboration to the attention of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. She keeps her pencil sharp as Proposal Manager for U.S. government contractor CSRA.

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