Design and Implementation of a VR-Based Pressurized Rover Environment for Lunar Samples Analysis

Pressurized rovers will play a crucial role in enabling extended extravehicular activities (EVAs), intra-vehicular operations, and crew habitability during the upcoming lunar missions. These vehicles will serve as mobile laboratories and living quarters, providing both protection and functionality in the harsh lunar environment. However, developing a Lunar Pressurized Rover (LPR) demands novel methodologies for design, validation, and training, as no prior operational experience, testing facilities, or physical prototypes currently exist or have been tested. An extensive literature review clearly highlighted the absence of dedicated training platforms for astronauts in such contexts, where no tools are currently available to facilitate the understanding of the tasks and operations to be performed on the lunar surface and within LPRs. To address these needs, this thesis presents the design and development of “RoVR”, a Virtual Reality (VR) simulation of the interior and functional environment of a lunar pressurized rover for astronaut training. Specifically, this work describes the design and the implementation of tasks and activities to be performed within the Scientific Workspace section, where astronauts inside the LPR will be able to perform procedural interactions to analyse lunar samples through a simulated Virtual Reality platform. The primary objective of this work was to develop a system capable of ensuring a high level of user interaction while preserving a strong sense of realism. A key focus was to achieve a degree of accessibility so users could stay fully focused on the training tasks without being distracted by technical obstacles while within the LPR. In conclusion, this framework proposes an approach to enhance mission preparedness and to provide an interactive environment in which users can perform various operations inside the rover. The system integrates realistic physics, accurate interior modelling, and user interaction design based on scientific research, demonstrating that VR can serve as a valuable complementary tool to traditional astronaut training methods, offering cost-effective, repeatable, and safe practice.