Upcoming crewed missions to the lunar surface will face challenging environmental factors, including difficult terrain and extreme lighting conditions. Replicating and studying such conditions in a real-world terrestrial setting is both problematic and expensive. In contrast, modern VR engines, such as Unreal, are well-equipped to simulate such terrains and lighting situations with minimum time and resource investment. VR, in this regard, presents a cost-effective and still largely underutilized tool for facilitating design assessments and training activities related to humanity’s return to the Moon.
Objectives
To assess the effectiveness of VR as a preparatory tool for upcoming lunar missions, I was tasked to digitally recreate the lunar south pole region. The idea was that this VR moonscape would then serve as a foundation for simulating various lunar surface scenarios which we could then immersivity evaluate with relevant experts, allowing for the collection of potentially applicable and actionable feedback.
What I did
Leveraging topographic scans of the actual lunar surface, I developed a realistic lunar environment in Unreal Engine that accurately portrayed key lunar factors, including reduced gravity and extreme lighting.
Workflow
After conducting initial research and consulting with my colleagues, I determined the Shackleton crater area near the lunar south pole (89.9°S 0.0°E) would be a suitable target for the VR emulation. We chose this area primarily because it has been identified as one of the candidate landing sites for the first Artemis human landing mission.
Next, I collected relevant publicly available topographic scans of the lunar surface that had been acquired by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Using Cinema 4D, I imported and isolated the targeted section of the map. I then Converted this map into a 2D depth map, which I subsequently utilized to create a corresponding landscape object in Unreal Engine 4.26. In total, 256 square kilometers of the lunar surface was emulated using this method.
Due to the original topographic map‘s pixel scale of 100 meters, I had to add smaller details (e.g. boulders) manually using 3D modeling software. I then textured the landscape procedurally using a set of custom created terrain shaders. Particle effects were also implemented to visually mimic the plumes of moondust generated by physical contact with the lunar surface. To keep the virtual environment optimized for real-time rendering, I utilized several LODs for all surface objects, including the terrain textures, reducing the detail of objects rendered further away from the player.
The gravity level was set to 1/6th of Earth. The sun was placed in the direction of north, at an angle of 1.5° above the horizon and its intensity set to 1.37 kW/m2 to mimic the conditions on the lunar south pole. All forms of indirect lighting and light scattering were disabled to recreate the pitch-black shadows stemming from the lack of lunar atmosphere
Finally, the lunar landscape was populated by several 3D assets representing prospective surface infrastructure. Such as lunar landers and habitation modules.
