Holographic Enabled Display for xEVA

Providing suited astronauts with the critical information needed to perform their complicated and high endurance missions is a priority need for the NASA space program. Human interfaces to support this demanding work can be facilitated with a spacesuit Heads-In Display coupled to information systems and potentially Augmented Reality processors and sensors. With a suitable information display and an Augmented Reality interface the user will have greater autonomy as will be needed on missions where communications with mission control or data resources is delayed, limited or unreliable. Good information makes for better decisions, better outcomes, and improved safety. The proposed solution we will develop can bridge the technology gap that exists with state-of-the-art AR displays that can’t simultaneously provide the metrics of eye relief, field of view, brightness and resolution needed in a spacesuit helmet display.

NASA applications are directly related to any manned spaceflight particularly xEVA missions in Earth orbit (ISS), in cis-lunar space, Lunar exploration and eventual missions to Mars and beyond. Augmented Reality is expected to bridge the gap between direct command and autonomy for next generation space exploration. The information display format needed to support this is the Heads-In approach our technology could provide. Our proposed innovation can amplify the information access and communications quality with an unobtrusive ergonomically designed display system using Creative Micro’s Imageguide display system. The same innovative spacesuit helmet display can be used in both broad NASA training and space operations as well as for non-flight applications. Potential applications exist for aviation helmets, in military bomb disposal suits, in cleanroom and operating room isolation suits, in sports gear and for any application that could use a rugged high-performance wearable or helmet mounted display. The ecosystem being developed around augmented reality and emerging “smart glasses” is limited in ways that the proposed innovation would bridge for commercial applications to flourish. Because outside NASA no one is currently looking for this specific solution in no way means that the applications don’t exist – they just haven’t been discovered yet. Billions of dollars are flooding into the development of wearable displays like AR/VR and smart glasses. We predict that the new approach to wearable displays, which clearly addresses a pressing NASA need, will be highly useful for a wide range of applications across the broad information display field.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 2) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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