XR/UX for Virtual and Mixed Mock-Ups Utilization in Space Habitat Design Development: Use Cases and Lessons Learnt

Collaborative Design is a process that brings together different ideas, roles and team members, reinforcing social relations interacting in a virtual space. This approach encourages a flexible decision-making and knowledge sharing [5]. A technical referential propose an innovative design process based on Virtual Reality technologies and User’s Experience approach has been provided to be shared within the International Community in 2021 [1].

This is based on the results achieved developing new tools enhanced through the use of virtual reality technologies [4, 2, 3] for making design assessments more effective, improve the occasion to put the physical user in the loop to obtain feedbacks and in parallel reduce the cost and the logistic complexity aiming to give a huge contribution to the feasibility to stimulate creativity through rapid prototyping, exploring interaction modalities and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration creating an inclusive environment where professionals from diverse fields, including scientists, engineers, researchers, and artists, can come together and collaborate on the design of future systems beyond the scope of traditional space systems engineering [1].

Our activities started in 2018 to put in place a design review in virtual environment supported by the HCD/ UX approach combined by VR technologies. The focus was to involve the final users since the early phase of the projects to identify habitability issues and find solutions e.g. for Crew Systems volume accommodation during the preliminary design development phases. ESA EAC VR team contributed to the 3Dtool verification providing the VPN connection within TASI, TASF and ESA EAC crew office teams which permitted the users to join together in real time from different sites in an immersive environment by using their own avatars to review the preliminary design related to the crew systems volume accommodation in IHAB where the main crew interfaces were evaluated in a low fidelity but totally “virtual” mock up.

The Design process is based on a digital platform tool which permit to share information between engineers, designers, experts and final users in real time (in local and/or remote connection) to perform brainstorming, trade-offs, analysis and design concept reviews involving all the disciplines needed to support the activities. The team could be composed by different actors based on the applications selected and related goals. This approach will permit to collect design guidelines based on user needs, and to reduce cost/time in resolving issues and find solutions in a shared environment, enhancing cooperation within the people involved and expert’s community. For Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the International Habitat (IHAB) module for the Lunar Gateway space station, Thales Alenia Space teamed up with the European Space Agency’s European Astronaut Center (EAC) to virtually review the IHAB’s functional volumes and related crew accommodations. All teams involved in this virtual session, including astronauts, are preparing for life around Moon orbit by focusing on habitability requirements to enable the crew to sleep, eat, manage stowage and conduct science experiments. ESA astronauts Alexander Gerst and Luca Parmitano used their avatars to check out future habitation accommodation on Lunar Gateway | Thales Group (see figure 1).

This was made possible by a new application developed by Thales Alenia Space, called GATEWAY4U, which provides a collaborative virtual environment allowing engineers and astronauts to experience the habitat’s environment during the design phase. It offers an accurate depiction of the module’s architecture, layout, and functions.

Involving the crew early in the module design process enables engineers to leverage astronauts’ unparalleled experience aboard the International Space Station. Their feedback will help shape upcoming design phases and support a user-centered design approach.

The tool can handle various types of information, including:

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  CAD models and system structures (subsystems, equipment, etc.)

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  Presentation and discussion of alternative design solutions (trade-offs)

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  Identification and resolution of critical issues and conflicts

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  Support for system engineering and configuration tasks in dedicated sessions

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  Assistance during design development and verification phases

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  Potential application for training and integration phases, and future product/service evolution

In the context of HABITAT design, the main envisaged applications are:

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  Design concept review from the early stages of development

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  Optimization of habitable volume

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  Human factors and ergonomic analysis

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  Internal architectural trade-offs

The collaborative design process is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3.

The GATEWAY4U application has undergone constant improvement since being developed. In July 2019, EAC worked with astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti in Cologne and Thales Alenia Space’s teams in Turin and Cannes to conduct a collaborative session that reviewed preliminary IHAB and ESPRIT designs, as always based on a combination of virtual reality (VR) and user experience (UX). The Design process is composed by the following main steps:

1. 1.

   System Modelling (CAD model simplification, VR scenario definition, Mission scenario, task analysis). The VR scenario will be defined based on the mission design phases needs and the operating environment. Understanding is gained through the following activities: Develop missions and scenarios, Develop concept of operations, Allocate functions between user and system.

2. 2.

   Collaborative Design (Usability Tests) The usability test are based on the active involvement of users and a clear understanding of task requirements. Users provide valuable knowledge about the context of use, the tasks, and how users are likely to work with the future product or system. Astronauts (e.g., mission specialist or payload specialist) with their extensive knowledge collected over years of experience allows for increased understanding of user needs and provide feedback on how to use the product or system. Engineering experts: ground operations personnel can interact with the final users to clarify issues and improving the understanding of proper tasks and system requirements aiming to find solutions in a more effective way.

3. 3.

   Data Collection & Analysis (user’s needs, design guidelines identification) The collected data will be analyzed to extract the main guidelines based on user’s experience to be used in the next step of the design refinement process. Within the iterative design process described here, the evaluation activities evolve designs by identifying areas for design improvement through the gathering of quantitative and qualitative data. Evaluation of design concepts and alternatives is crucial to achieving optimal design solutions. Evaluations must begin early and continue throughout an iterative system design process. Representative users in the simulations and evaluations phases to ensure that results capture the capabilities of the user and are relatable to the mission situations.

The IHAB developmental test in virtual l mock-up performed in 2021 involving astronauts from remote in a real-time virtual session have been described in previous section. Avatars representing the users interacting in remote connection in real time are shown in Figure 1 and 3. Here below the low fidelity IHAB physical mock-up used for the developmental test performed in May 2024 is showed in Figure 4. The Galley area included a prototype of a table that has been evaluated by the test subjects of different anthropometric percentiles, that have been selected following the NASA HITL process).

Based on the results of the use of the VR/UX process described in para 2.0 here below are summarized some guidelines emerged during the Gateway4U tool developmental tests, which helped to clarify on how improve testbeds and verification facilities enhanced by extended reality technologies. The crew provided useful feedbacks on how to improve the 3D tool usability, clarifying the human perception issues detected evaluating the CS volumes and the human I/Fs objects interaction by using the VR functionalities available.

In the frame of Gateway Habitat Modules (e.g. IHAB, Esprit) design development reviews, in virtual and physical mock-ups, contributed to compare the usability of these verification mock ups environments and gave us additional knowledge to contribute to the transition by combining physical testbeds with digital elements, to simulate operability scenarios and find design solutions that could be achieved at a fraction of the cost of the traditional HITL process. Therefore, the next step of our activities is oriented to verify the potentiality of mixed mock-ups (composed by simplified physical parts + virtual scenarios that could be upgraded as soon the design will be more mature) to avoid the limitations detected in using virtual mock-ups only, providing new tools to be used for human systems and habitability requirements assessments:

Scheduling Design Session (SET UP)

Scheduling is fundamental. Based on the LLs acquired during the 3D tool development activities the protocols for the VR scenario set up finalization should consider the following steps: · LL1 to evaluate the efforts for the VR scenario finalization 3D models/detailed procedures) shall be provided from the involved parties at least two weeks in advance. · LL2 VR scenario shall be shared between the VR sessions participants in advance to permit corrective actions if needed. · LL3 A user manual will be provided to permit adequate training session to the involved team. · LL4 Dedicated dry runs (1 off-line and 1 on-line) to be planned before the test to identify criticalities in advance in order to avoid misunderstanding and detect time schedule’s limitation.

Proposed Roadmap for TRS updating Benefits & Limitations will be taken into account as requirements guidelines to address the next GATEWAY4U upgrading phases for: · Collisions detection features improvements · Avatar behaviors functionalities upgrading (to improve the sense of presence in VR) · Design process optimization (protocols, roles, scenarios, test procedures, questionnaires definitions…) · Data base collection and management Further digital tools/services linked with AR and MR applications are envisaged (e.g. design, training, support to operation, integration and testing phases).

Usability Testbed for Mixed Mock-Ups Under Development. The mixed mock-up where physical and digital mockup/simulation elements are highly integrated should be developed in the frame of the current PDR activities by TASI and tested in the frame of the ERM Esprit crew I/Fs accommodation, reviewing the worksite for each of the six Windows that will characterize this Cis Lunar Habitat. It is expected to exploit the potential to considerably enhance the validity of the future design evaluations, aiming to reach a higher level of realism and also saving time and resources in the process. In addition, the projection of visual cues into the real world could help to reduce the perception of the physical space limitations, thus increasing the user’s sense of presence in the simulated environment. this approach is considered also a great opportunity to demonstrate the role of the HCD/UX methods in developing the future design verification facilities to perform HITL developmental tests.