Virtual reality representation of Martian soil for space exploration

Space exploration is a very challenging task for various reasons, such as hostile environments, different gravity laws, either unknown or unpredictable phenomena which need ad hoc technological solutions to be devised first and then put in practice. In this context, virtual reality techniques can help the aerospace industry to improve the planning phase of each mission; its main advantages are to allow realistic digital mock-ups representation, to enable collaborative multidisciplinary engineering tasks, simulation of critical ground and flight operations, real-time interactivity, costs reduction and time sparing. Since a deep knowledge of the working environment can surely be considered a crucial factor in designing space exploration missions, such as in the case of scientific exploration of solar planets, virtual reality representation is a fundamental method in order to recreate and exploit useful information about the terrains where robots, machinery and astronauts have to work onto. Therefore, in this paper we will describe how the Martian surface is represented and visualized for practical, virtual reality applications, developed at COSE Center in Thales Alenia Space-Italy. In particular, our interest is focused on passing from highly defined digital elevation maps to suitable 3D models. Examples of such reconstructions will be given as well as some concrete scenarios brought up for detailed discussions. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.