NASA has partnered with Epic Games and Buendea to launch a new competition to create virtual reality scenarios that replicate extravehicular activities on the surface of Mars.
The NASA MarsXR 2 Challenge is hosted on the HeroX crowdsourcing platform to support the development of a VR testbed environment simulating Mars’ gravity, weather conditions, terrain and day and night hues, HeroX said Thursday.
Participants will use Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5 to create scenarios for the new Mars XR Operations Support System environment, which will also include assets for human expeditions, such as suits and rovers.
Scenarios developed from the competition will be used to test procedures and expose researchers to immersive and realistic spacewalk experience. Selected winners will receive $70,000 in total prizes.
The first MarsXR competition was launched in May 2022 to help NASA prepare and plan for conditions while conducting activities on Mars.