The day we put people on Mars, they will require much higher levels of autonomy. A mission to Mars would have significant bandwidth limitations and communication delays as long as 20 minutes one way. Providing astronauts with all of the intelligence possible is important, but equivalently important is how they will access and use that information. A proper informatics system integrated within the space suit is required. This project will explore using in-helmet augmented reality (AR) for exploration missions. It will expand a previous AR navigational tool prototype and explore hardware prototypes for in-helmet displays. The second component is to test the efficacy of the high-fidelity prototype with human subjects to understand the benefits of using AR during exploration missions.

“Having worked on this project previously as a UROP student, SuperUROP gives me the opportunity to dive deeper into researching Augmented Reality (AR) for exploration missions. I have been working on AR interfaces during my time at MIT and specifically on AR for analog EVA missions during the past three semesters. This research could help engineers design and envision the next suits for Mars, which makes it very exciting to work on.”