Design Simulation in Support of NASA's Robotic and Human Lunar Exploration Program Bruce Damer 1 , Dave Rasmussen 2 , Peter Newman 3 and Brad Blair 4 DigitalSpace Corporation, 343 Soquel Ave, Suite 70, Santa Cruz CA 95602 USA DigitalSpace Corporation has been building an open source real-time 3D collaborative design engineering and training platform called Digital Spaces (DSS) in support of NASA’s Exploration Vision. Real-time 3D simulation has reached a level of maturity where it is capable of supporting mission engineering design and operations using off-the-shelf game chipsets and open source physics and rendering technologies. This paper will illustrate several examples of state-of-the-art real-time design simulation utilizing DSS for the upcoming NASA lunar robotic and human exploration programs. I. Introduction For several years, DigitalSpace Corporation has been building and utilizing an open-source real-time 3D collaborative engineering, design and training platform called Digital Spaces (DSS) in support of NASA’s new exploration vision. This platform has been deployed into several NASA centers and other institutions to deliver innovative applications in almost every program, ranging from ISS training to Mars exploration. II. Early Mobile Robotic Design Simulations In late 2005, DigitalSpace Corporation was invited to join the NASA RLEP2 (robotic lunar exploration program, surface mission) to support the design simulation of “pre-phase A” rover concepts for a planned 2011 mission to explore cold, dark traps on the Lunar south pole. Our earlier work on a real-time simulation of the Colorado School of Mines’ prototype lunar bucket wheel excavator 1,2 , was employed to study future In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) regolith handling operations (Figures 1, 2) and paved the way for our RLEP2 participation. Funding for the effort was covered under a NASA SBIR Phase I grant. A second phase continues to support refinement of the core DSS simulation platform as well as to develop specific applications for current NASA programs. Figure 1. Colorado School of Mines’ prototype lunar bucket wheel excavator. Figure 2. DigitalSpace model of excavator operating on moon with dust simulation. 1 President and CEO, DigitalSpace HQ, 343 Soquel Ave, Suite 70, Santa Cruz CA 95062. 2 Director, DM3D Studios, DigitalSpace Corportaion. 3 Chief Architect, DM3D Studios, DigitalSpace Corportaion. 4 Consulting Engineer and Economist, Golden, Colorado. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1