page_title: Astronaut training
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Astronaut training / Virtual reality astronaut training / History
caption_attribution_description: English: HOUSTON (March 24, 2009) Astronauts Tom Marshburn, left, and Dave Wolf train for a spacewalk in the Integrated EVA/RMS Virtual Reality Simulator Facility at Johnson Space Center. Marshburn and Wolf are members of STS-127 and will take a space flight with Lt. Cmdr. Chris Cassidy in an upcoming mission to the International Space Station in June. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Dominique M. Lasco/Released)
context_page_description: Astronaut training describes the complex process of preparing astronauts in regions around the world for their space missions before, during and after the flight, which includes medical tests, physical training, extra-vehicular activity training, procedure training, rehabilitation process, as well as training on experiments they will accomplish during their stay in space.
  Virtual and physical training facilities have been integrated to familiarize astronauts with the conditions they will encounter during all phases of flight and prepare astronauts for a microgravity environment. Special considerations must be made during training to ensure a safe and successful mission, which is why the Apollo astronauts received training for geology field work on the Lunar surface and why research is being conducted on best practices for future extended missions, such as the trip to Mars.
context_section_description: Virtual reality technologies first came to a commercial release in the 1990s. It is not until then did people realize that VR can be used in training astronauts. The earlier VR gears for astronaut training are dedicated to enhance the communication between robot arm operators and the astronaut during Extravehicular Activities (EVA). It brings EVA crew members and robot arm operators together, in live, even when they are on board a spacecraft. It is also used to replace some of the oversized models that cannot fit in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL).
  In 1993, astronauts were trained and evaluated on working on the Hubble Space Telescope through a virtual reality training tool, Research in Human Factors Aspects of Enhanced Virtual Environments for EVA Training and Simulation (RAVEN). However, the aim of RAVEN was not to train astronauts but to evaluate the efficacy of training using virtual reality versus underwater and other setup.
  Through the years of technological development in VR, the hardware for the VR Lab in NASA has also significantly improved. Both the material and the resolution of the display are being renovated:
  1991: Liquid-Crystal Display (LCD) - 320x420
  1992: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - 1280x1024
  2005: Micro Organic Light-Emitting Diode (micro-OLED) - 800x600
  2012: LCD - 1280x720
  2015: OLED - 1920x1080
  Virtual reality has also been adopted to a much wider range of fields in space exploration throughout the history of technology renovation. The newer applications of VR include but are not limited to:
  Mission planning
  Cooperative and interactive designing
  Engineering problem-solving
  Data modeling
caption: Astronauts Tom Marshburn, left, and Dave Wolf train for a spacewalk in the Integrated EVA-RMS Virtual Reality Simulator Facility at Johnson Space Center
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