Sunday, September 15, 2019

ISRO To Go Virtual With Astronaut Training For It's Maiden Manned Space Mission

ISRO - Manned Space Mission - India - 01

The recently established Human Space Flight Centre [HSFC] of the Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] issued a notification, last week, seeking out responders who can develop a Virtual Reality [VR] based solution to impart initial training to it's Astronauts for proposed Manned missions.

ISRO is set to undertake it's maiden Manned Space mission in a couple of years. The mission profile involves flying to the Low Earth Orbit [LEO], orbiting the Earth &, then, making a safe descent back to the Planet. Successive missions would get progressively complex. ISRO setup the HSFC, earlier this year,  to coordinate activities of it's Manned Mission programmes. A team of 4 Indian Air Force [IAF] pilots will be chosen for the maiden mission & would travel to Russia to undergo training.

Human Space Flight Centre - HSFC - ISRO - Manned Space Mission - India - 01

Towards adopting modern tools impart training, HSFC is looking to implement a VR-based system, that will familiarise Vyomnauts, as Indian Spacefarers are called, with the interfaces & operational procedures of the Craft. Once it crosses that threshold, they would transition to a hands-on experience on a ground-based physical mock-up.

ISRO is looking at a solution, built using either the Unreal Gaming engine or Unity engine. Using the system, "participants should be able to move around inside the virtual world". Infusing realism it should trigger "alarm with red light indication in the virtual scene if he/she hits any objects of the enclosure while navigating inside", including ability to carry out firefighting in Space. Operator performance logging must be integrated with the system.


The system would be include a glove controller, providing haptic feedback for the Astronaut's hand movement. Primary activities Vyomnauts would train for using the Glove would be holding food packets, user manuals, torch lights & fire extinguishers.

source

A plethora of Indian Start-ups engaged in VR-related activities. Working with them should result in a desired outcome.

An innovative move. Keep an out out for further development on this.

Godspeed

Also Read: This 'Blink-And-You-Miss-It' Video Clip Reveals The Future Of India's Space Programme