Spacecraft: A virtual reality sandbox environment Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2017 International Astronautical Federation IAF. All rights reserved. At present, it is essentially impossible to completely test a complete Space Mission Architecture in any integrated fashion on Earth, especially one with components designed and developed at different institutions worldwide. Future missions of exploration and settlement in Space will involve many technologies, systems and capabilities working together on a solar-system scale. These technologies include: numerous spacecraft, habitats, rovers, robots, satellite constellations, communication arrays, space suits, landers, science instruments and life support systems. Also of consideration are tools such as teleoperation and advanced autonomous systems for robotic construction and other remote operations. SpaceCRAFT, a collaborative virtual reality systems engineering platform, has been designed with these problems in mind; it provides the capability for scenario-based operational testing of all of these components in an integrated mission VR environment. It is a virtual reality (VR) 'Sandbox' environment designed to enable government, university and commercial entities to collaborate in the design, use and evaluation of technology for future operations in Space. Taking advantage of high speed parallel computing, virtual reality systems and open source software platforms, SpaceCRAFT aims to enable any person or institution to contribute to humanity's future in Space. Its development began in September 2016 with over 75 students on 12 teams contributing to its system architecture, physics models, plug-in capability and demonstration missions. By the end of May 2018, a beta version will be released to begin world-wide collaboration. This paper outlines the development of the architecture and the potential use of this program as a global space design tool.

published proceedings

  • Proceedings of the International Astronautical Congress, IAC

author list (cited authors)

  • Hogan, R., McHenry, N., Coen, M., Morrell, B., & Chamitoff, G.

complete list of authors

  • Hogan, R||McHenry, N||Coen, M||Morrell, B||Chamitoff, G