‘IXV-trajectory’ and ‘IXV-asset’: Virtual reality applications for the aerothermodynamics analysis of IXV

Design and engineering of space vehicles involve several different disciplines, each of which have specific research methodologies and software tools. Interaction among the physical analysis tools, as well as collaboration among teams, is a delicate and difficult subject of collaborative engineering research topics. This paper presents a solution based on a new technical and interaction design. We encourage the development of Virtual Reality 3D applications to interface the tools that perform the quantitative physical analysis of given space vehicles, as this approach improves productivity and communication effectiveness and brings consisting benefits to the engineering and design collaborative processes. As an evaluation of this method, we report the design and implementation of two Virtual Reality Applications specifically developed for the European Space Agency's space vehicle IXV. This evaluation showed that users found the Virtual Reality interface easy to use and likely to be useful in their own work. The benefits underlined by this method brought to the acquirement of this approach as the new future standard methodology in pre-launch phases of space vehicles.