NASA's Virtual Exploration Rendered Simulation Environment (NVERSE)

NASA is currently developing the necessary tech-nologies to support the future Artemis missions to the Lunar South Pole region. Prior to setting foot in this region, astro-nauts and mission planning personnel require insight into its unique lighting and navigation challenges. Virtual Reality (VR) simulations can display challenging environments in a safe and controlled manner while also providing depth perception and spatial awareness. The Lunar South Pole environment, when modeled in VR, demonstrates the impact of lighting, surface elements, and terrain features on critical Extravehicular Activity (EVA) factors such as safety, navigation, and mobility. With over five decades having passed since humans last walked on the moon during the Apollo era, dramatic steps have been taken in improving virtual rendering. Innovations in both hardware and software allow immersive technologies to create realistic environments which provide a high degree of visual fidelity. Due to the unique challenges of the Lunar South Pole, it is critical that astronauts and mission planners gain experience in environments that reflect these conditions. To supplement this need, the Simulation and Graphics Branch (ER7) at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) has developed NASA's Virtual Exploration Rendered Simulation Environment (NVERSE), which provides an immersive simulated lunar environment for applications such as mission planning, analysis, and training. This paper details the NVERSE application's features and capabilities that will aid NASA in supporting astronauts and engineers in future Artemis missions. In addition to its potential as a training tool for astronauts, NVERSE can be utilized for human-in-the-Ioop testing for EVA studies analyzing operations such as navigation, mobility, and decision making. These studies can provide supplemental evidence aiding both design decisions of surface elements and protocols for exploration activities. In summary, NVERSE provides familiarization of the Lunar South Pole region to optimize the development of operational procedures, enhance mission training, and identify potential risks.