Lockheed Martin builds for the next stage in human space exploration with Microsoft HoloLens 2

Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, is also the name of a NASA space program with the goal of returning humans to the moon and opening space travel to Mars. Lockheed Martin is currently building the Orion spacecraft—the most advanced deep space vehicle in production—that will protect astronauts as they travel beyond Earth’s orbit. The building process is challenging, due to the high level of precision needed to make Orion ready for the extremes of space travel.

Lockheed realized it needed mixed reality to address the needs of the building process, and to help streamline instruction delivery and to empower accurate, efficient building processes. Lockheed Martin decided to use Microsoft HoloLens 2 to address these needs.

Outer space has been a wondrous part of America’s collective imagination for decades. The space race of the 1950’s and 1960’s inspired scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other specialists to do and create new things—ingenuity that has yielded nine trips to the moon, the building of an international space station, and more than 100 space shuttle missions.

Now, NASA and the White House have kickstarted the Artemis program with the intention of returning humans to deep space. 

Lockheed Martin looks for ways to reduce the cost and increase the speed that it builds Orion spaceships for Artemis. It decided to use cutting-edge augmented reality technology to help engineers and technicians maximize the team’s efficiency. Currently, the company is using Microsoft HoloLens 2 and mixed reality solution provider, Scope AR.

Artemis, Orion, and the future of space travel

One goal of the Artemis program is to land the first woman and the next man on the moon by 2024. Intelligence gathered during that journey will fuel the next big step in space exploration: a human spaceflight to Mars. 

But carrying astronauts to their destination is challenging. Spacecrafts that travel outside of Earth’s orbit need reliable and extensive technology to protect astronauts in space. Building the safety measures for a spacecraft requires a large number of resources and a small margin of error. Each part of the vehicle serves a purpose—primarily to protect astronauts from radiation, heat, and the vacuum of space. If one of the parts doesn’t function as it should, it could be disastrous for the mission and the people on board the spacecraft.

Accordingly, engineers need to work with complex instructions and measurements in tight spaces to ensure that all their work falls within specified limits. Having devices like laptops or tablets in the spacecraft build site introduces access problems, at times. 

Shelley Peterson, Principal Investigator for Augmented and Mixed Reality at Lockheed Martin, calls items like paper or laptops “rectangular data,” which aren’t ideal for working in the cramped spaces of a capsule. Not only do they get in the way, but they don’t allow engineers to rapidly reference measurements or instructions while working. To address this issue, Lockheed Martin looked for technology that could assist engineers while working in tight spaces.

Peterson saw an opportunity for the HoloLens and MR technology to mitigate the need for computers or bulky equipment in building spaces because of its ability to overlay content in a mixed reality environment.

“We were looking at technologies as early as 2011 and 2010,” Peterson says. “But when true augmented reality devices started surfacing, we noticed a big difference…When you can have content in your 3D space in reference to objects in the room, it makes it so much more efficient.” 

Using HoloLens and AR to streamline work on the Orion

When Lockheed Martin was considering MR technology as part of the manufacturing solution, there were skeptics. Previous instances of using this technology weren’t productive in a high-performance manufacturing space, and the company needed to build custom tools and software alongside the hardware to accomplish what it needed. After considering several devices and seeing an impressive demonstration from Microsoft, Lockheed Martin chose Microsoft HoloLens 2.

“Choosing was smooth from the start,” Peterson says. “We built a scenario for the HoloLens 2 manufacturing activity and ran the first demo on the shop floor within a day to demonstrate use. We were impressed with how stable it was and how it worked from the start.”

Once Lockheed Martin began using HoloLens with its software on the Orion build project, it found significant improvements to build operations, in terms of time and accuracy. 

“The Orion spacecraft has 57,000 fasteners,” Peterson says. “Normally the technicians would have to measure and place those individually. With mixed reality, they see a digital version of the fastener, so they know exactly where to place it. We save about ninety percent of the touch labor. We take an eight-hour activity of marking locations and finish it in fourty-five minutes…or an eight-shift activity completed in six hours.” 

These improvements translate into everyday tasks, like drilling procedures, torque applications, and step-based activities, such as assembling and installing crew seats and building the heatshield skeleton. For each piece of manufacturing, Peterson says that the HoloLens and AR/MR technology gives a single scenario of design, quality assurance, inspection, and testing. 

Likewise, the risks of error were dramatically reduced. “In the last three years we’ve used HoloLens on the shop floor, we haven’t had one error and that’s significant,” Peterson said. “It feels like magic.”

Lockheed Martin’s mixed reality solution uses technology built by Scope AR, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network. Scope AR’s Worklink platform was built to empower frontline workers to work more effectively with less errors using applications that specialize in remote assistance and guided work instructions.

HoloLens helps Lockheed Martin create efficiencies in each phase of the manufacturing lifecycle of Orion. This brings new and more in-depth training tools and resources for its builders and engineers.

The future of space travel relies on the most advanced tools on Earth

The initial Orion Artemis flight will orbit the moon without humans on board, and Artemis 2 will do the same with full crew. Finally, the crew of Artemis 3 will land on the moon in 2024. After more sustainable Artemis missions at the moon, the dream is to take humans to Mars—a goal that has never been achieved.

Lockheed Martin engineers are building the future of space travel to make those milestones achievable. With augmented reality, and the help of HoloLens, the company can focus less on the minutia of construction and error management and more on designing and empowering the next generation of deep space travel.