Future astronauts living and working on the Moon are expected to rely on VR for a range of purposes. Whilst relevant VR experiences have been developed and tested in terrestrial settings, none of them accounts for the lunar gravity and the manner in which it might impact a user’s interaction with a virtual environment. To address this limitation, the XR lab conducted a parabolic flight campaign, allowing for the study of VR solutions in reduced gravity conditions.
Objectives
Testing virtual reality systems during a parabolic flight campaign provided us with the opportunity to conduct a range of experiments measuring the impact of reduced gravity on usability and other aspects of VR solutions. The goal of my experiment was to measure the effect of reduced gravity on user performance in VR and then develop virtual reality experiences replicating this effect under normal gravity conditions. The idea is to create VR simulators that can help astronauts better prepare for the challenges they will encounter when using VR solutions on the Moon.
What I did
As a principal investigator, I was given the flexibility to design, implement, and conduct one of the parabolic flight experiments. This involved researching relevant literature to identify gaps in existing knowledge, developing a suitable VR system, deploying it and collecting data during the actual parabolic flights, and finally analyzing the collected data and documenting research findings.
Workflow
To meet the stated objectives, I designed and developed two simple VR-based exercises. Both of these exercises were centered around activities that required some level of precision, hand-eye coordination and balance. Both exercises were tested in 1g (control condition) and 0.16g / 0.38g during the flights (experimental condition). A within-subject study design with counterbalancing was employed.
- Exercise 1: Participants were instructed to pick up cargo containers deployed from a lunar lander and carry them to a designated drop-off point (cca 3 meters away from the lander). They were asked to place the containers as close to the drop-off point (marked by a cross) as possible. Their speed and precision was measured throughout this exercise.
- Exercise 2: Participant were placed on top of a lunar lander and asked to hit various points of interest using their hand controller. The points of interest were visualized as moving targets. Each time the user successfully hit one of the targets, the target disappeared and got replaced by another target spawned randomly at a different position. This task was repeated for the full duration of each Martian parabola. Once again, the speed and precision of the participant was tracked.
Three flights, featuring a total number of 6 study participants, took place in the course of the study. The collected data revealed several important trends, such as users moving faster albeit with lesser precision in lunar gravity, when compared to regular terrestrial conditions. These findings are currently in the process of being written up for a scientific journal. Once officially published, I will update this post accordingly.
