Situational awareness and mission support for future lunar missions

On 14 and 15 May 2025, the German Space Operations Center (GSOC), the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) and the Microgravity User Support Center (MUSC) conducted another successful analog simulation in the LUNA Analog Facility. The campaign focused on the integration of custom Mission Support Applications (MSA) to enhance real-time situational awareness and operational efficiency.

To specifically prepare for this and future more complex campaigns, GSOC collaborated with the ESA’s XR Lab in Cologne to visualize LUNA using a dedicated virtual reality application, thus being able to physically explore the rooms and the regolith testbed, and to rehearse the sequence of events in a virtual replica of the facility directly from Oberpfaffenhofen with a remote setup.

The overall goal of the test campaign was to further develop mission how to execute activities in LUNA, to validate and optimize procedural workflows and to deploy the MSAs that supported both the astronauts and the mission control team during the campaign. The tools deployed were:

1. A heart rate monitoring system to assess the workload of the astronauts
2. A tracking system for real-time localization of the astronauts, also used as a navigation aid for simulated scientifically-interesting sites
3. A QR based storage management system to track used hardware and its storage locations
4. A central database for uploading images, videos and notes generated during the simulation
    

The simulated mission scenario focused on the analysis of regolith samples previously collected by a rover. The objective was to detect simulated “water ice” in rock samples. Instead of real ice, the samples were marked with UV reactive paint to comply with the LUNA anticontamination guidelines. Upon positive detection, the astronauts collected the sample and transported it to a simulated landing system.

A realistic Flight Control Team was ad hoc setup to support the test: it consisted of a Mission Support Team and a Science Support Team who were sitting in the LUNA control room as well as Crew Communicator, who was remotely connected from GSOC in Oberpfaffenhofen. This setup provided valuable insights into the flight control team’s dynamics and the communication between the different operators distributed across multiple locations.

The two-day campaign was a complete success: the experiences gained during the procedural execution of the analog activities, as well as the knowledge of integrating custom-developed software into the LUNA infrastructure, will directly influence the next phases of the LUNA project. In fact, the MSA software was tested in realistic lunar conditions for the first time and proved to be very useful for both astronauts and the ground support team. The findings and lessons learnt will help to further refine the operational processes for future human surface exploration missions.