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Virtual reality representation of Martian soil for space exploration

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Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, University of Torino, Corso Svizzera 185, I-10149, Torino, Italy

    L. Piovano & M. M. Brunello

  2. ALTEC S.p.A., Corso Marche 79, I-10146, Torino, Italy

    I. Musso

  3. Thales Alenia Space—Italy, Strada Antica di Collegno 253, I-10146, Torino, Italy

    L. Rocci & V. Basso

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  1. L. Piovano
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  2. M. M. Brunello
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  4. L. Rocci
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  5. V. Basso
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Correspondence to L. Piovano.

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Luca Piovano graduated in Computer Science at Torino University, Italy, in 2004. He took his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Torino University in 2008, in joint program with the Institute for Electronics and Information and Telecommunications Engineering (IEIIT) at National Council of Research (CNR). Since 2008, he has collaborated with Thales Alenia Space—Italy, first as Lagrange fellowship holder (in joint research with Physical Space Inter-University Consortium) and currently as research fellow (in collaboration with Computer Science Department of Torino University). His research interests mainly fall into the computer vision field with practical applications for virtual reality and 3D representation of spatial environments.

Michela Marcella Brunello graduated in Mathematics at Torino University, Italy, in 2010 with a thesis on elaborating digital elevation models for their accurate representation on virtual reality environments. She is actually holding a scholarship for the STEPS project from Computer Science department of Torino University, and she is collaborating with Thales Alenia Space—Italy. Her interests are related to computational mathematics in virtual space exploration domain, with a particular emphasis on terrain representation and procedural methods.

Ivano Musso took his Master in Eurospace Engineering at Politecnico of Torino in 2000. He graduated in Physics at Pisa Universita in 2005 and took his PhD in Space Science and Engineering at CISAS c/o Padova University in 2008. From 2000 to 2008 he was at Flight Dynamics Laboratory of the ISTI Information Science Institute of the National Research Council of Italy in Pisa, first as fellowship holder and then as a member of the research staff. In that period, he performed studies on stratospheric balloons trajectory prediction and operations for the Italian Space Agency, plasma propulsion studies with CISAS and mission analysis also with German Space Operations Centre in Munich. In ALTEC from mid 2008, he is now responsible of the Operations Group. In this context, he has been involved into several research projects (STEPS, IXV in collaboration with ESA, ExoMars-ROCC project).

Lorenzo Rocci graduated in Aerospace Engineering at Politecnico of Torino in 1999. The subject of his thesis was on parametric and variation monetization. He is in Thales Alenia Space Italia since 2001, working on mechanical analysis, where he joined Business Segment Space Infrastructure and Transportation Engineering and Advanced Programs department. He is currently the technical platform responsible of the COllaborative System Engineering (COSE) Centre.

Valter Basso graduated in Computer Science at Torino University. Since 1989 he is in Thales Alenia Space Italia working on Requirements Verification on Assembly Integration and Verification (AIV department). He joined the Business Segment Space Infrastructure and Transportation Engineering and Advanced Programs department as Manager for Process Optimisation driven by Concurrent Engineering since 2005. He participated to many Space Agencies, European Commission and Regional Project/Studies often with Managerial role (e.g., ESA/MATED; EC/VIEW of the Future; Region Piedmont and CIFS/AstroVR, EC/MANUVAR; Region Piedmont/STEPS). He is currently the responsible of the COllaborative System Engineering (COSE) Centre. He is also member of the Finmeccanica Mindsh@re community.

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Piovano, L., Brunello, M.M., Musso, I. et al. Virtual reality representation of Martian soil for space exploration. Pattern Recognit. Image Anal. 23, 111–129 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1054661812040141

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