Using Virtual Reality for Science Missions At The Lunar South Pole

Abstract:

With the accelerated schedule for NASA to return crews to the Moon by 2024, planning surface science operations and developing tools to aid in this planning have become urgent. Orbital data sets and environmental accuracy must be considered when planning science operations for Lunar South Pole surface missions due to the extreme lighting conditions, dramatic terrains, and deceptive scale of features. Virtual Reality (VR) adds a new dimension to planning lunar surface science operations by immersing the user in a 360° digital environment giving the sensation they are standing on the lunar surface. We have developed a preliminary lunar VR toolkit designed for mission and science planners, which provides both traditional aerial maps-like perspectives as well as a boots-on-the-ground and near-surface VR perspectives, and incorporates a Google Maps-like feature set, accurate lunar lighting conditions, and collaborative planning between remote users (essential in today’s pandemic-restricted world).

Several techniques for pre-mission visualization of the lunar terrain were used for the Apollo missions. For Apollo 15, a giant model of Hadley Rille was lit from different angles to show the crew what the terrain would look like from the lunar module window during landing. For Apollo 16, the traverse planning team rendered perspective drawings to visualize the horizon and predict what geologic features the astronauts would see at each station. Today, a better solution is to use mixed reality. We are building an open-source VR toolkit to support pre-mission, real-time, and post-mission lunar surface science for the planetary community.

The Lunar VR toolkit, built on the Mixed Reality Exploration Toolkit (MRET), combines LOLA 5m topographic data, CAD models (e.g., lander, rover), procedural textures, and geologic features (e.g., rocks, craters) for sub-5m simulation of the lunar surface. Future capabilities include the incorporation of real-time mission telemetry to provide a full mission lifecycle tool, test instrument design and operation concepts, pre-operations planning and walk-throughs of traverses, and situational awareness support during actual mission operations.

We will discuss the critical features we think are needed for lunar south pole mission planning and the development of our Lunar VR toolkit.