A Synthetic Environment for Satellite Modeling and Satellite Orbital Motion

Abstract

Analysts tasked to study satellites moving in space must often rely on photographs to conduct their analysis. Often these photographs do not adequately represent how satellites move in space, their spatial relationships, or their interaction with other satellites. What analysts need is a three- dimensional synthetic environment that depicts satellites as they actually move and interact in space. This thesis addresses the early development of the Satellite Modeler (SM), a system that allows analysts to study, satellite motion and maneuvering of computer aided design (CAD) models of those satellites in a three-dimensional orbit. The system contains equipment that allows analysts to view the models either in a head mounted display, on a high resolution monitor, or on a computer workstation monitor. Analysts can also video tape a session in the synthetic environment. A voice recognition system allows the analyst to give voice commands to the synthetic environment that modify model movement or his view of the models. The modeler also allows the analyst to script the movements of models to duplicate the movements of actual satellites in space.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1992
Accession Number
ADA258847

Entities

People

  • David L. Pond

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Automated Speech Recognition
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer-Aided Design
  • Computers
  • Environment
  • High Resolution
  • Light Sources
  • Object Oriented Programming
  • Recognition
  • Software Prototyping
  • Three Dimensional
  • Video Tapes
  • Virtual Reality

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers