Moonshots: Moonshooters
By Nikki Rademaker, and Yanna Smid
Overview
This project was created during the MOONSHOTS '24 project organized by the Netherlands Space Office under the leadership of andré kuipers. Together with Yanna Smid, I created prototype of a video game for astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The game is intended to help improve austronauts' mental well-being by offering a playful and relaxing activity during long space missions.
The Idea
Together with Yanna Smid, Christina Irakleous, and Annelies Vaandrager, we came up with the idea of game that would use the actual space environment as its game environment. Living in space can be stressful and lonely. Astronauts face isolation, limited privacy, and a strict routine. Studies show that games can help reduce stress. Our idea was to let astronauts play a game while looking out the Cupola window. Using AR glasses, the game overlays asteroids on the real view of Earth and space. This gives astronauts a fun and immersive experience to take their mind off things. We presented a simple first version of the prototype at the Moonshots event in October 2024. Astronauts (Bill McArthur and Michael Fossum) and students tested the game and provided useful feedback. They liked the simplicity and found it engaging. Yanna and I developed the prototype further to get a fully functional game for the computer. Feedback given during the presentation was implemented to cater to the austronauts' needs. We also tested it later on during the development process with other users of different ages. Most players picked up the game quickly and wanted to play again. We adjusted the speed and aiming based on their feedback.
Game Concept
The player controls a small spaceship. The goal is to shoot asteroids and avoid collisions. Each hit gives points, and players lose lives when hit. The game ends when all three lives are gone. A score is shown at the top, and hearts display remaining lives. Sound effects add to the experience, but there is no background music to avoid unnecessary stress while playing the game. In the future, it would be nice to add a leaderboard for friendly competition between astronauts.
For more information about the game and the protect, you can visit our project website, or you can download the full project report. Below is a demo video of the prototype.
Technical Development
The prototype was made in Unity version 2022.1.2f1, and 3D asteroids were modeled in Blender. This final prototype was built in Unity with inspiration from an online tutorial for the environment. All the different game elements were implemented by ourselves.It now runs on a computer but is designed for use with AR glasses and a joystick controller. The idea is that these glasses should detect when the astronaut is looking out the window and display the game in their view. The game uses a joystick for control because it is intuitive and works well in small spaces.
We first considered using a projector on the Cupola window, but astronaut Andrew Feustel advised using AR glasses instead. These are already used on the ISS and do not require changes to the station.