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Nebula Public Library

The knowledge bank of ESA’s R&D programmes

Extended reality lab for Mars experiments (Mars Xlab)

Programme
Discovery
Programme Reference
22-D-T-TEC-01-a
Prime Contractor
Sirin Orbital Systems AG
Start Date
End Date
Status
Closed
Country
Switzerland
Extended reality lab for Mars experiments (Mars Xlab)
Description

The main objective of this activity was to design and develop an innovative virtual lab for Mars experiments, where AI methods are used to improve orbital imagery resolution, as well to obtain terrain features based on local images from rovers. Two different methods were used to recreate the virtual environment. The first one was dedicated to process low resolution images from orbital information. The main contribution in this sense was the use of AI to increase the resolution of these images. The generated textures were integrated along with Digital Terrain Maps (DTM) to recreate the surface in 3D. The second approach was related to the 3D recreation of high resolution rocks. Rocks were recreated based on a two stages approach, in which AI was used to detect rocks on rover local images to later recreate them in 3D using GAN Neural Networks. Finally, high-resolution textures were obtained from available sources on Internet, placing them on the virtual scenario depending on the NOAH-H deep-learning based terrain classification system [4], first obtaining the segmentation of a partial area of Mars and, second, including the corresponding high resolution textures.

Application Domain
Exploration
Technology Domain
13 - Automation, Telepresence & Robotics
02 - Space System Software
04 - Space Systems Environments and Effects
08 - System Design & Verification
09 - Mission Operation and Ground Data Systems
Competence Domain
06 - Life / Physical Science Payloads / Life Support / Robotics and Automation
08 - Ground Data Systems / Mission Operations
09 - Digital Engineering for Space Missions
10 - Astrodynamics / Space Debris / Space Environment
Keywords
AI
Augmented Reality
XR lab
VR
Mars
Initial TRL
TRL N/A
Target TRL
TRL N/A
Achieved TRL
TRL N/A
Public Document
Executive Summary