Virtual Astronaut for Scientific Visualization - A Prototype for Santa Maria Crater on Mars

TL;DR

This paper presents a virtual astronaut system built on Unity3D for interactive visualization of Mars data at Santa Maria Crater, aiding scientific analysis and user engagement.

Contribution

The paper introduces a prototype virtual astronaut system that integrates diverse Mars data into an interactive 3D environment for scientific visualization.

Findings

Proven effective by science community feedback.

Enables dynamic visualization of mineralogical data.

Supports interactive rover operation simulation.

Abstract

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.