Space Scientists Invent Futuristic VR Simulations For Moon Astronauts | Space

The first American astronauts set to touch down on the Moon in the new millennium will not blast off for another 700 days, but now they can begin exploring potential landing sites by jacking into a Matrix-style simulation of its cratered South Pole sector.

Simultaneous revolutions in space-based imagers and laser scanners, and in virtual reality modelling toolkits, are giving rise to VR doubles of real-life lunar scenes that appear to be identical twins.

“We are building very high resolution, photorealistic digital twins of potential Artemis III landing sites,” and then developing these into cutting-edge virtual replicas of the orb’s ancient plains and impact formations, says Kip Hodges, who as founding director of Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration helped transform the university into one of the top American space studies centers and research nodes.

“The best available imagery…

Source www.forbes.com