B.C. student’s VR tech gets lift off in experiment on astronaut loneliness

A virtual reality program created at Simon Fraser University is being used in a months-long space flight simulation in Russia to help alleviate loneliness and isolation in astronauts.

SFU PhD student Katerina Stepanova and her colleagues created the VR experience that takes viewers through several settings, including a campfire, a deer grazing, and a sunset, to help them feel more grounded.

“It’s exploring how we can use VR to counteract some of the negative psychology effects that living in isolation and confinement can have on people,” Stepanova said.

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The program, created at the university’s iSpace lab, in collaboration with the Centre for Space Medicine and Extreme Environments in Berlin, is being used in a Russian facility modelling a spacecraft.

Six volunteers locked themselves inside the simulated spacecraft at the NEK facility in Moscow, where multiple space agencies will conduct more than 70 experiments.

The crew will be inside the spacecraft for eight months — roughly the time it takes to get to Mars.

“So if you imagine you stay in the same little tiny spaceship for eight months, you may start feeling some depressive symptoms, some feelings of loneliness or some other affects on your mental well-being,” said Stepanova.

“We’re trying to see how some of those experiences that are very important for us to feel connected to others, to our planet, to this big universe around us.”

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Stepanova’s voice is also heard through the nearly 30-minute VR program, asking the user personal and intrinsic questions and allowing them to self-reflect.

“It’s pretty exciting because it’s a very unique opportunity,” she said. “These isolation studies are conducted once every few years.”

SFU professor Bernhard Riecke, who oversaw Stepanova’s project, said astronauts experience cognitive decline while in orbit.

“Literally, brain deteriorates if you’re in space, if you don’t move, if you’re in zero gravity. So, can we provide them with something that can help them reconnect?”

He added that the research relates to the general public as well, with the COVID-19 pandemic having significantly increased feelings of loneliness and isolation.

“We all experienced basically what it feels like to be isolated from the people we love, we care about, (that) we’re not allowed to go into nature, to go anywhere to travel to see each other.”

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There are seven months left in the isolation experiment, which means Stepanova and Riecke won’t know the results until next July.

“My ideal outcome is to see that they have enjoyed this experience,” Stepanova said, “that it was able to support their emotional state, help them relax, reduce their stress levels, (and) help them experience some emotions like compassion and gratitude.”

She said she also hopes that a more advanced version of her VR experience will eventually be used during a real long-duration space flight.