Watch how NASA is using VR to prep for upcoming moon missions

NASA is aiming to put astronauts back on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2027. While the date could slip, the space agency will continue with training and other preparation for the highly anticipated mission, so that when the day for launch does finally come, the crew will be ready.

NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, has just dropped a video (top) showing how it’s utilizing virtual reality (VR) technology to prepare astronauts for spacewalks — also known as extravehicular activities (EVAs) — on the moon’s surface. 

The specially designed lab uses sandboxes, multi-directional treadmills, and mockups of spacesuits to create a realistic spacewalk environment, while other gear is used to collect data on human health and performance, enabling mission planners to design an experience for the astronauts that’s efficient, comfortable, and above all, safe.

“We find virtual reality to be really helpful in our EVA testing and research,” Patrick Estep, a NASA human performance engineer, said in the video. “It’s really important that we can simulate as many great aspects of EVA as we can in a rapid, controllable, and repeatable test environment.”

Estep said that one of the beauties of virtual reality is that they’re able to recreate pretty much anything digitally with different tools, widgets, and heads-up displays, and then place someone virtually on the lunar surface to learn more about how astronauts might perform in such an environment.

“We’re going to test a whole bunch of different scenarios,” NASA astronaut Kate Rubins said. Understanding emergency situations is of course a priority, and when a crew is eventually assigned to the Artemis III mission, they’ll be trained to help them deal with a range of extreme situations.

The video shows some of the training sessions the team has been engaging in as they prepare for the Artemis III mission in a few years from now. 

Jeff Somers of NASA’s Human Physiology, Performance, Protection, and Operations Lab described virtual reality as “a critical part” of enabling the crew members to get the big picture before embarking on their mission, “so that they can experience what it will be like to do an EVA on the [lunar] surface.”