Virtual Reality - Blog Posts

Concept art for I believe Reyukey! I’m pretty sure it’s concept art for reyukey because I did concept with my friend who drew X for me! The concept for (which was made in vr by my friend) Reyukeys clothes (specifically his shirt) because I had no idea what to do for him. All I had was a name and a few specific significant items. The idea was for a little bit of his skeleton showing and the rest covered! Thank you Mistercon for making this!

Sit Back and Space Out

Peer out on the depths of universe from the cupola windows,

Meander through the hallways of space,

Float in the home office of the star sailors.

Allow yourself to - space out - and imagine life through the eyes of NASA Astronauts on the International Space Station. 

Check out other ways to enjoy #NASAatHome, HERE. We've curated videos, activities and fun in one out-of-this world place.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

Employee Training – It’s Kind of a Big Deal

This is what it would look like if you were training to #BeAnAstronaut! Astronaut candidates must train for two years before they become official NASA astronauts. After graduation, you can look forward to more skill building when training for upcoming missions. Let’s dive into some of the courses you can expect once you’re selected for the job: 

T-38 Jet Training 

All astronaut candidates must learn to safely operate in a T-38 jet, either as a pilot or crew. Because this is the one area of their training that is not a simulation and involves decisions with life or death consequences, it teaches them to think quickly and clearly in dynamic situations.

 Neutral Buoyancy Lab Training

The mission of the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) is to prepare astronauts for spacewalking outside the International Space Station! Astronauts are lowered into a large pool wearing full spacesuits. The pool is full of hardware that replicates what the space station is really like, so astronauts are able to practice tasks they can expect on a spacewalk such as going out the airlock, finding a good path to the work site and more! The NBL is beneficial because it gives astronauts the ability to be neutrally buoyant which simulates the effects of microgravity.

Geology Training

Geology training courses are specially tailored to the work astronauts will do from the International Space Station or on the next interplanetary mission! Astronauts learn the basic principles of geology, see rocks in their natural environment and handle samples from their class discussions. It’s less like memorizing the names of rocks and more like learning how geologists think and work. 

Wilderness Survival Training 

Before they end up in space, astronauts carry out a significant portion of their training in aircraft on Earth. It's unlikely, but possible, that one of those training planes could crash in a remote area and leave the humans on board to fend for themselves for a while. Knowing how to take care of their basic needs would be invaluable. Through the exercises, instructors hope to instill self-care and self-management skills, to develop teamwork skills, and to strengthen leadership abilities – all of which are valuable for working in the isolation of the wild or the isolation of space. 

Extreme Environment Training 

Astronauts participate in a variety of extreme environment training to prepare for the stresses of spaceflight. Pictured here, they are exploring the underground system of the Sa Grutta caves in Sardinia, Italy as a part of the European Astronaut Centre’s Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behavior and performance Skills (CAVES) expedition. Seasoned astronauts as well as rookies participate in the course and share experiences while learning how to improve leadership, teamwork, decision-making and problem-solving skills.

Virtual Reality Training

In our Virtual Reality Laboratory training facility at Johnson Space Center astronauts are able to immerse themselves in virtual reality to complete mission tasks and robotic operations before launching to space. The facility provides real time graphics and motion simulators integrated with a tendon-driven robotic device to provide the kinesthetic sensation of the mass and inertia characteristics of any large object (<500lb) being handled.

Want more? We’ve compiled all you need to know about what it takes to #BeAnAstronaut HERE.

Apply now, HERE!  

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Bringing The Space Station Perspective to Earth in VR!

Only a few humans ever get to experience the awe-inspiring vantage point provided by the space station, but a new virtual reality (VR) experience, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience (ISS Experience), attempts to bring this perspective back to Earth for the rest of us.

Partnering with the ISS National Lab and Time, a team from Felix and Paul Studios launched a high quality 360 degree camera to space to help tell the story of science and life aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The project, currently in the process of being filmed by the station astronauts themselves, serves as an outreach project as well a technology demonstration, testing the limits of filming in the harsh environment of space.

The camera flew to the station on 16th SpaceX commercial resupply services mission in December 2018 along with a number of other scientific experiments.

Since then, the team has recorded many moments, including the SPHERES robots flying around the station (see below) , the growing and harvesting of vegetables, jam session among the astronauts, crew meals and the arrival of new astronauts.

So far, the footage coming back seems to be achieving the goal of immersing audiences in science and life aboard the space station. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams got the chance to watch some of the initial footage and says it was like I was back on the station.

While most of the filming has been completed, the biggest technical challenge is yet to come: capturing a spacewalk in virtual reality. The team expects to launch a new camera for spacewalk filming and begin production of spacewalk filming in 2020.

Learn more about ISS Experience here.

For daily updates, follow @ISS_Research on Twitter, Space Station Research and Technology News or our Facebook. Follow the ISS National Lab for information on its sponsored investigations. For opportunities to see the space station pass over your town, check out Spot the Station.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

From Discovering the Secrets of the Universe to In-Space Servicing, We’ve Got The Tools for the Job

If you need to fix something on Earth, you could go to a store, buy the tools you need, and get started. In space, it’s not that easy.

Aside from the obvious challenges associated with space (like it being cold and there being no gravity), developing the right tools requires a great deal of creativity because every task is different, especially when the tools need to be designed from scratch. From the time an engineer dreams up the right tools to the time they are used in space, it can be quite a process.

On Nov. 15, astronauts Luca Parmitano and Drew Morgan began a series of spacewalks to repair an instrument called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-2) on the exterior of the International Space Station. The first of four spacewalk focused on using specialized tools to remove shields and covers, to gain access to the heart of AMS to perform the repairs, and install a new cooling system.

The debris shield that covered Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer floats away toward Earth as astronaut Drew Morgan successfully releases it.

Once repaired, AMS will continue to help us understand more about the formation of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter and antimatter.

These spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVAs), are the most complex of their kind since the servicing of the Hubble Space Telescope. AMS is particularly challenging to repair not only because of the instrument’s complexity and sensitivity, but also because it was never designed to be fixed. Because of this design, it does not have the kinds of interfaces that make spacewalks easier, or the ability to be operated on with traditional multi-purpose tools. These operations are so complex, their design and planning has taken four years. Let’s take a look at how we got ready to repair AMS.

Thinking Outside of the (Tool) Box

When designing the tools, our engineers need to keep in mind various complications that would not come into play when fixing something on Earth. For example, if you put a screw down while you’re on Earth, gravity will keep it there — in space, you have to consistently make sure each part is secure or it will float away. You also have to add a pressurized space suit with limited dexterity to the equation, which further complicates the tool design.

In addition to regular space complications, the AMS instrument itself presents many challenges — with over 300,000 data channels, it was considered too complex to service and therefore was not designed to one day be repaired or updated if needed. Additionally, astronauts have never before cut and reconnected micro-fluid lines (4 millimeters wide, less than the width of the average pencil) during a spacewalk, which is necessary to repair AMS, so our engineers had to develop the tools for this big first. 

With all of this necessary out-of-the-box thinking, who better to go to for help than the teams that worked on the most well-known repair missions — the Hubble servicing missions and the space station tool teams? Building on the legacy of these missions, some of our same engineers that developed tools for the Hubble servicing missions and space station maintenance got to work designing the necessary tools for the AMS repair, some reworked from Hubble, and some from scratch. In total, the teams from Goddard Space Flight Center’s Satellite Servicing Projects Division, Johnson Space Center, and AMS Project Office developed 21 tools for the mission.

Designing and Building

Like many great inventions, it all starts with a sketch. Engineers figure out what steps need to be taken to accomplish the task, and imagine the necessary tools to get the job done.

From there, engineers develop a computer-aided design (CAD) model, and get to building a prototype. Tools will then undergo multiple iterations and testing with the AMS repair team and astronauts to get the design just right, until eventually, they are finalized, ready to undergo vibration and thermal vacuum testing to make sure they can withstand the harsh conditions of launch and use in the space environment. 

Hex Head Capture Tool Progression:

Hex Head Capture Tool Used in Space: 

Practice Makes Perfect

One of the reasons the AMS spacewalks have been four years in the making is because the complexity of the repairs required the astronauts to take extra time to practice. Over many months, astronauts tasked with performing the spacewalks practiced the AMS repair procedures in numerous ways to make sure they were ready for action. They practiced in:  

Virtual reality simulations:

The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory:

The Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS):

Astronauts use this testing to develop and practice procedures in space-like conditions, but also to figure out what works and doesn’t work, and what changes need to be made. A great example is a part of the repair that involves cutting and reconnecting fluid lines. When astronauts practiced cutting the fluid lines during testing here on Earth, they found it was difficult to identify which was the right one to cut based on sight alone. 

The tubes on the AMS essentially look the same.

After discussing the concern with the team monitoring the EVAs, the engineers once again got to work to fix the problem.

And thus, the Tube Cutting Guide tool was born! Necessity is the mother of invention and the team could not have anticipated the astronauts would need such a tool until they actually began practicing. The Tube Cutting Guide provides alignment guides, fiducials and visual access to enable astronauts to differentiate between the tubes. After each of eight tubes is cut, a newly designed protective numbered cap is installed to cover the sharp tubing.

Off to Space

With the tools and repair procedures tested and ready to go, they launched to the International Space Station earlier this year. Now they’re in the middle of the main event -- Luca and Drew completed the first spacewalk last Friday, taking things apart to access the interior of the AMS instrument. Currently, there are three other spacewalks scheduled over the course of a month. The next spacewalk will happen on Nov. 22 and will put the Tube Cutting Guide to use when astronauts reconnect the tubes to a new cooling system.

With the ingenuity of our tool designers and engineers, and our astronauts' vigorous practice, AMS will be in good hands.

Check out the full video for the first spacewalk. Below you can check out each of the tools above in action in space!

Debris Shield Worksite: 2:29:16 – Debris Shield Handling Aid 2:35:25 – Hex Head Capture Tool (first) 2:53:31 – #10 Allen Bit 2:54:59 – Capture Cages 3:16:35 – #10 Allen Bit (diagonal side) 3:20:58 – Socket Head Capture Tool 3:33:35 – Hex Head Capture Tool (last) 3:39:35 – Fastener Capture Block 3:40:55 – Debris Shield removal 3:46:46 – Debris Shield jettison

Handrail Installations: 4:00:53 – Diagonal Beam Handrail Install 4:26:09 – Nadir Vacuum Case Handrail Install 4:33:50 – Zenith Vacuum Case Handrail InstallVertical Support Beam (VSB)

Vertical Support Beam (VSB) Worksite: 5:04:21 – Zip Tie Cutter 5:15:27 – VSB Cover Handling Aid 5:18:05 – #10 Allen Bit 5:24:34 – Socket Head Capture Tool 5:41:54 – VSB Cover breaking 5:45:22 – VSB Cover jettison 5:58:20 – Top Spacer Tool & M4 Allen Bit 6:08:25 – Top Spacer removal 7:42:05 - Astronaut shoutout to the tools team