Virtual Reality-based training scenario of a pressurized lunar rover’s cockpit

During the last years a renewed interest in space exploration has ignited new attention and investments in designing pioneering solutions to be used in the upcoming manned missions to our natural satellite. In a wider ground exploration perspective, astronauts should perform long extra vehicular activities to conduct scientific experiments and technological validation campaigns. To ease this objective, some of the most important national space agencies are funding new research programs regarding the development of a vehicle able to transport and house its passengers into a pressurized environment, the so called pressurized lunar rover. Meanwhile, the industrial sector is exploiting a range of technologies known as extended reality, a spectrum that includes Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR); they allow to perceive the surrounding world adding layers of information and can even bring users into a completely different environment. The main objective of this project is to simulate, for training purposes, the cockpit of a pressurized lunar rover using the Virtual Reality technology. Users will be able to interact with devices that control the inner environmental conditions of the vehicle and with which the system can be set up in preparation for a driving mission.