Assessing the potential of virtual reality for improving ESA's space operations

Virtual reality (VR) provides an immersive virtual environment to users. VR users can enter and interact with VR environments in a natural way similar to interacting with the real world. VR offers promising features that could have the capability to improve present and future space operations in various areas. For exploiting the benefits offered by VR, the efficient integration of VR with operations data systems is crucial. In this paper, results of a study on the potential of improving ESA's operations with the help of VR are presented. Results include conceptual use case and technology analyses as well as practical results from the implementation of a proof-of-concept (PoC) prototype.