ROLE
Design & Research Lead
DURATION
August 2020 – June 2021
TOOLS
Figma, Unity, Microsoft HoloLens
Home » NASA SUITS
NASA SUITS is a collaborative design challenge offered nationwide that encourages university involvement in STEM research. The challenge involves designing an augmented reality environment on the Microsoft® HoloLens to assist astronauts on spacewalks.
Bradley University’s team consists of designers, developers, animators, and engineers.
Design & Research Lead
August 2020 – June 2021
Figma, Unity, Microsoft HoloLens
As NASA pursues Artemis – landing American astronauts on the Moon, the agency will accelerate investing in surface architecture and technology development. For exploration, it is essential that crewmembers on spacewalks are equipped with the appropriate human-autonomy enabling technologies necessary for the elevated demands of lunar surface exploration and extreme terrestrial access. The SUITS Challenges target key aspects of the Artemis mission.
Astronauts face many challenges during extravehicular activity (EVA) operations. For example, an astronaut has to work with reduced mobility due to the mechanical design of the spacesuit while also performing their resource-intensive activities. However, physiological restrictions are not the only challenges an astronaut will face. Research conducted by De la Torre (2014) illustrates that space greatly impacts neurocognitive performance. Psychomotor functions degrade during space flight, such as the following: the degradation of speed and accuracy of aimed movements, internal timekeeping, attentional processes, sense of limb position, and the ability to manage concurrent tasks. It is essential to combat these issues that astronauts face to ensure a safe and effective spaceflight mission.
This project aims to investigate how an augmented reality heads-up display (HUD) can minimize the current physiological and psychological challenges that astronauts face. The team hypothesized that providing astronauts with a detailed and user-friendly visual interface using augmented reality will improve performance in the high-stress environment of human spaceflight operations.
Through collaboration with designers, developers, animators, 3/D modelers, geologists, and NASA employees, our team created a user-friendly interface for the Microsoft Holoens 2. This application can display vital information, assist in navigation, and guide the user through science sampling tasks, all through the use of voice commands. Please view the details below.
1
Review Design Challenge
Literature Review
Functions & Features
2
Flow Charts
Mockups
Prototypes
Proposal Writing
HoloLens Build
3
HITL Test Plan
Testing @ Outreach Events
Iterate on Designs
4
Final Testing with NASA
Iterate on Designs
Final Presentation
Academic Paper
The 2020-2021 challenge focused on implementing navigation and science sampling features for the Artemis Mission. Throughout this project, I led the design team, created user interface designs, user-tested our build, presented our work to NASA experts, and participated in outreach events.
Positive:
Improvements: