Human estimation of slope, distance, and height of terrain in simulated lunar conditions

As NASA's Vision for Space Exploration seeks to explore mountainous regions near the southern pole through frequent, long excursions, astronauts will require accurate navigational assistance. Current and future technology, including LIDAR data, laser rangefinders, and path planning programs will likely be available; however, the human's own perception of the terrain may affect their confidence in these instruments and be necessary during emergency situations. These unique lunar conditions are expected to affect human perception: the lack of an atmosphere (inhibiting the use of aerial perspective as a distance cue and causing the formation of deep cast shadows), the non-Lambertian regolith reflectance properties, the lack of familiar objects, and the physiological effects of reduced gravity. This project examines the inherent errors humans make when judging the slope, distance, and height of terrain, both on the Earth in a lunar-like environment and on the Moon using photographs from the Apollo missions. Five experiments were conducted in field and Virtual Reality (VR) environments. The effects of true slope, true distance, and sun elevation on slope estimates were determined using visual and motor responses in a lunar-like Utah environment and reproduced in a VR environment using synoptically viewed images in two body positions, under normal and lunar Gz loading conditions. The effects of true slope, distance, and body position on slope, distance, and height estimates of synoptically viewed Apollo panoramic images were measured and compared to measurements obtained from topographical maps. Systematic and random errors were determined for all estimates. Slope estimate comparisons were made between lunar-like and lunar terrain and also between lunar hills and craters. Slope was significantly overestimated in the field study by 130 - 230 with large between-subject errors.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Oravetz, Christopher

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Laurence R. Young.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/47809

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/47809