2023-11-11 20:03:45
The next mission to resupply the International Space Station by a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is planned within a few days. Among the equipment that will be sent to the astronauts is a virtual reality headset from HTC that will be used to preserve the astronauts’ mental health. This is a unique “space therapy” experience. It is the European Space Agency astronaut, the Dane Andreas Mogensen, who will test it in real conditions.
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The health of astronauts in space is a major concern among space agencies. And it is taken all the more seriously as the next stages of human exploration are being prepared – which will see humans settle on the MoonMoon at the start of the next decade – and the first manned missions bound for Mars and an asteroidasteroid.
When it comes to the health of astronauts, there are many points to watch out for. You should know that space travel has consequences on the bones, muscles and several organs of the body with, for example, ocular-ocular pathologies, venous thrombosesthrombosis or even sensory disorders combined with radiation and a modification of the cardiovascular system. Astronauts’ mental health also takes a hit when they are in orbitorbit.
During a space mission, whatever the duration, astronauts live in a certain isolation, a very unstimulating environment with repetitive tasks and do stressful and tense work which can be mentally exhausting but above all potentially lead to mental disorders. Mental Health.
Virtual reality for headsets to relieve pressure and stress
To remedy this, space agencies have planned a whole arsenal of preventive measures to counter these undesirable effects. Concretely, astronauts commit themselves to more or less recreational physical activity, to sleep well and to real periods of relaxation with moments of communication which allow astronauts to stay in contact with their family and friends on Earth. For this, “technology” is a fantastic tool. To communicate, astronauts use space telephony, the Internet and videoconferencing systems and, the latest innovation to date, virtual reality! The latter turns out to be a tool that might well become essential for future manned missions.
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A unique space therapy
It is in this context that Nord-Space Aps launched a virtual assistance initiative for mental balance, aimed at meeting the specific needs of astronauts to maintain their mental health in orbit. This “spatial therapy” in virtual reality will be carried out with the HTC VIVE Focus 3 headset with the simulator mode which has been specially developed and adapted to operate in microgravity. It is the European astronaut, of Danish nationality, Andreas Mogensen, currently on board the ISSISS as part of the Huginn mission, who will be the first astronaut in space to use a virtual reality headset for the purposes of preventionprevention.
A helmet configured to function correctly in orbit
In the past, using a VR headset in microgravity posed multiple tracking and orientation challenges, as the motion, rolling, and drifting of content caused nausea and made it difficult for astronauts to read the content. contained in the helmet. In microgravity, there are no gravity vectors to align the orientation, which naturally creates drift to the point where the VR headset is unusable and unstable. Previous projects with other VR headsets have resulted in loss of tracking following just a few minutes of use.
Nord-Space Aps, HTC and XRHealth therefore worked together to design a virtual reality platform that might operate in space using a simulator mode and specialized tracking methodology via the controllers. This headset, configured so that it can be used in microgravity conditions, thus pushing the limits of what is possible in virtual reality, was preferred over several other headsets.
For the HTC company, the choice of their headset by NasaNasa, ESAESA, XRHealth and Nord-Space Aps is seen as a “ incredible honor to tackle some of the most complex challenges of humanity’s space exploration: isolation and mental health,” said Cher Wang, president and co-founder of HTC. As for Eran Orr, CEO of XRHealth, he declares to be “ excited and proud to deploy the first headset on a space mission to relieve pressure and stress, so astronauts can maintain peak performance during crucial space missions “. For Per Lundahl Thomsen, director of technology at Nord-Space Aps, the creation of a virtual platform that meets the “ Astronauts’ mental health needs during isolation are imperative so they can maintain a healthy lifestyle when they return to Earth ».
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