Virtual Astronaut for Scientific Visualization

To support scientific visualization of multiple-mission data from Mars, the Virtual Astronaut (VA) creates an interactive virtual 3D environment built on the Unity3D Game Engine.
A prototype study was conducted based on orbital and Opportunity Rover data covering Santa Maria Crater in Meridiani Planum on Mars. The VA at Santa Maria provides dynamic visual representations of the imaging, compositional, and mineralogical information. The VA lets one navigate through the scene and provides geomorphic and geologic contexts for the rover operations. User interactions include in-situ observations visualization, feature measurement, and an animation control of rover drives. This paper covers our approach and implementation of the VA system. A brief summary of the prototype system functions and user feedback is also covered. Based on external review and comments by the science community, the prototype at Santa Maria has proven the VA to be an effective tool for virtual geovisual analysis.

Jue Wang, Keith J. Bennett, Edward A. Guinness
(Submitted on 7 Nov 2017)

Comments: 20 pages, 11 figures
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
Journal reference: Future Internet 2012, 4, 1049-1068
DOI: 10.3390/fi40x000x
Cite as: arXiv:1711.02629 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:1711.02629v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: June Wang
[v1] Tue, 7 Nov 2017 17:47:51 GMT (1537kb)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.02629