[Baps] Recruiting for VR for planetary exploration

[Cody Alison Paige]

Hello Planetary Scientists!

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Aero/Astro at MIT working with Dr. Dava Newman.  In collaboration with NASA Ames, my team is developing a virtual reality platform to help geologists explore planetary surfaces and to train future Artemis astronauts.  I am looking for participants for a user study to try out the platform.  You’ll need to be available on the MIT campus for ~1.5 hours and will be paid $20 for your time.  The only pre-requisite is some sort of field experience.

Please email me at cpaige at mit.edu<mailto:cpaige at mit.edu>, or fill in the form below if you are interested in helping develop this tool for planetary geologists!

Official recruitment letter and interest form:

Are you interested in helping geologists explore the Moon and Mars?  Or helping to train Artemis astronauts on Lunar geology?  We are developing a virtual reality platform to do just this and we need your help.  Using both VR and a Desktop program you will explore Svalbard, Norway (an Arctic archipelago) as a Lunar analog and answer questions about the local geology to help us understand the benefits of using VR and how we can improve for upcoming Lunar missions.
We are conducting a study to assess the use of virtual reality for doing near-field geology on the Lunar surface. This study will help us to better understand the tools necessary to make VR a useful environment for scientific exploration of the Moon and other planetary surfaces. It will also help us to how to more closely emulate real field work for Lunar surface exploration.
If you choose to participate in the study, you will first spend 30 minutes being trained on the VR headset (we will be using the Oculus Quest) and in the desktop environment, followed by a 1 hour session exploring Svalbard in VR, and in a desktop environment.  You will be asked to assess specific geological features while using these different platforms and then provide feedback on them. To participate in the study, you must be able to fluently speak, read, and write English, have some basic knowledge of geology, and at least one experience doing geological field work.  We ask that you review the checklist attached for any indications that you may not be comfortable using VR for this length of time and for the geological knowledge required. The study will be conducted in person at MIT. Those interested in participating will be asked to complete a brief pre-study assessment and questionnaire ahead of the full experiment.  You will be compensated with $20 for your time.
If you are interested, please fill out this google form <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1IJnVZWh2Lp5WBODZxYOljCCMy8AAEKhcy6zuUWAnP9w/edit> or reach out to Cody Paige (cpaige at mit.edu<mailto:cpaige at mit.edu>) with any questions.

Thank you,

The MIT RESOURCE Team


____________
Cody Paige
Graduate student, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Phone: 1 (857) 320-9714
Email: cpaige at mit.edu

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