The morning started with catching up on work reports from yesterday. Yes, there is reporting in space! As we are doing both our own XR experiments and projects necessary for the planned EVAs we’ve got lots to do! The EVA missions really help the crew feel how it is to walk in the shoes of astronauts (literally!), which allows them to conduct research in the ecological validity conditions of the simulated Moon environment. This time our XO went out in a test prototype suit called BORP, which we hope to outfit with a Hololens, while our XR Officer upholds the space tradition with a suit called PUMA based on a historical VKK helmet fighter jet outfit. In the evening the crew relaxed playing Half-Life Alyx, while their devices were charging for the research sessions that were to come the following morning, some pleasant, like XR prototyping, some less, like saliva collection.
The crew also has started scanning the habitat using a 3D laser scanner provided by the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. This will allow the XR Lab research team to transfer the habitat into Virtual (VR), Augmented (AR) or even eXtended (XR) reality environments. Such immersive environments can not only serve future analog astronauts, but can also provide a unique space habitat experience to a wider audience!
