Project Velos
VR lunar exploration
2021
NASA's Artemis program plans to land humans on the Moon, but first they must explore permanently shadowed regions (PSR).
These PSRs near the lunar poles, unexposed to sunlight for billions of years, are critical for scientific discovery and mission risk reduction. NASA needs innovative concepts to understand the lunar environment within PSRs, including regolith, water ice, and thermal conditions. This also involves developing technologies for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), such as collecting and processing water. Enabling successful exploration and operation in PSRs requires breakthroughs in mobility, navigation, power, communications, and sensing systems.
Project background
As a design team lead at The Luminosity Lab, I collaborated with mechanical and electrical engineers to tackle NASA's challenge of exploring lunar PSRs. Beyond CAD design and prototyping, I pushed our concept further by incorporating a virtual reality experience, giving a unique first-person perspective of our proposed solution.
How might we gather and relay information from the Moon's extremely cold, permanently shadowed regions?
Team solution
Our team's innovative solution for exploring the Moon's PSRs involves a spring-loaded launcher payload. This system is designed to deploy multiple probes that can not only enter these frigid, dark environments but also communicate with each other using a mesh network to reliably relay crucial data back to the lunar surface.
Velos launcher & probe
Our design features a launcher capable of deploying multiple, modular probes, each customizable with various sensors to prioritize specific data collection. This approach tackles the challenge of exploring extreme environments by offering a cost-effective and energy-efficient solution, as our probes are designed to be disposable.
Technology stack
The VR experience was designed in Unity 3D and optimized for the Oculus VR headset. We built the interactive experience using Unity's XR Interaction Toolkit, custom UI using Adobe Illustrator, and Blender for creating custom 3D models. Additionally, Unity's Terrain Toolkit allowed us to accurately sculpt the lunar landscape for an immersive and realistic training environment.
Storyboarding
I began by storyboarding the play-by-play of the experience, aiming to both accurately represent our proposed solution and uniquely engage the user. The goal was to place them directly into the narrative, allowing them to fictionally walk step-by-step on the Moon's surface as an astronaut.
Immersing the user
To fully immerse the user, I had them embody an astronaut, rigging virtual astronaut gloves as their hands and animating them to interact seamlessly with everything from the UI to lunar rocks.
3D user interfaces
I designed the experience around guided stations, each featuring a popup container with a 3D UI and VoiceOver audio to seamlessly guide the user through the narrative. This approach ensures a clear, interactive progression for the user.
Interactable CAD assembly
When introducing our custom launcher payload and probes, I included an interactive CAD model of the probe. Users can animate this model into an exploded view, allowing them to clearly see its individual components.
Probe launch
To enhance engagement, I incorporated a gamified element where the user could remotely aim and "fire" our probes towards the PSR target. As an Easter egg, users could even hit a golf ball into the lunar distance, an homage to Alan Shepard in 1971.
Final Pitch
Unfortunately, NASA didn't select our solution for real-world testing, but I'm proud to say our team received an award for the most innovative use of creative technology for incorporating virtual reality into our pitch.