Constructing a Virtual Lunar Environment for Interaction Experiments

Emma Katovich

Authors: Emma Katovich, Raleigh Adams, Alex Adkins, and Dr. Sophie Jörg

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sophie Jörg

College: School of Computing

ABSTRACT

In 1999, NASA created an exercise titled “Survival on the Moon”, which modeled a scenario of a member of a space crew stranded 200 miles from a designated rendezvous point due to mechanical difficulties. Much of the equipment was damaged, and there are only 15 items left to aid the member’s survival. The exercise asked the member to rank the items, from 1 (most important) to 15 (least important), which determines how well the member would survive in the environment based on these rankings. The goal of our project was to create a virtual scene of this lunar environment that could be modified to work as an experimental environment. Future work could determine how prepared the player would be in completing the exercise under different situations. The model was inspired by a lunar environment, and through the game engine Unity’s terrain tools and C# scripts we were able to create a playable situation.

Video Introduction

Emma Katovich 2020 Undergraduate Research Symposium