XR in Space – Augmented Reality for Astronauts on the Moon with Leonie Bensch

Jul 31, 2025

Leonie Bensch, Doktorandin an der ESA, entwickelt Augmented Reality (AR) für Astronauten auf dem Mond. Sie erklärt, wie AR-Technologien helfen können, gefährliche Schatten und unebene Oberflächen zu erkennen. Ihre Forschung verwendet Virtual Reality (VR) zur Simulation und Feedback-Sammlung. Spannend sind auch die Herausforderungen bei AR-Headsets in der Schwerelosigkeit und die Notwendigkeit neuer Designs. Außerdem spricht sie über die Space CHI 4.0 Konferenz zur Vernetzung von Experten in der Raumfahrttechnologie.

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INSIGHT

Sicherheitskritik bei XR im Weltraum

XR-Anwendungen im Weltraum müssen extrem zuverlässig und sicher sein.
Fehler können katastrophale Folgen haben, weshalb autonome und robuste Systeme unverzichtbar sind.

ANECDOTE

AR hilft Astronauten auf dem Mond

Leonie Bensch testete mit Astronauten AR-Navigationsfeatures im simulierten Mondumfeld mit VR.
Astronauten empfanden AR-Hilfen als nützlich, um die Herausforderungen durch starke Lichtunterschiede zu mindern.

ADVICE

Co-Design mit Astronauten nutzen

Entwickle XR-Systeme mit Co-Design und partizipativer Gestaltung mit Astronauten.
Ihr Feedback sicherstellt, dass die Lösungen praxisnah, nutzerzentriert und effektiv sind.

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Thomas Riedel
Leonie Bensch

This is the ignite episode of „XR in Space“, a Spatial Realities podcast-special.

Imagine a shadow so black, it could be a hole. And if you drop something into it, it’s practical gone.

That’s a realistic scenario for future moon missions. As the moon has no atmosphere, light is not dispersed nor weekend at air molecules leading to brutal light conditions you can not imagine as an earthling. Starting 2030 we build the Artemis moon base from where we might conduct complex missions not only on the surface of the moon itself but also to start our journey to Mars.

And so that astronauts do not step into a shadow which is actually a hole in the ground, stumble and damage their spacesuit or instruments, an augmented reality interface could be helpful.

Leonie Bensch, Doctoral Candidate at the European Space Agency, researches exactly that. In her research she develops AR scenarios in Virtual Reality (VR) to test designs and gather feedback before developing costly physical prototypes. For Example she examines how a grid might help to understand the topographical feature of the moon surface or how far an object is away. No easy task as safety and reliability has top priority in space.

Leonie is not only a researcher at ESA. As one of three conference chairs she organized the Space CHI 4.0 conference which took place June 23-24, 2025 at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne. This podcast-special was mainly inspired by that conference, as there were many inspiring talks and keynotes and even two ESA Astronauts taking part.

Shownotes

XR in Space Episode:

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