Immersive visualization offers a powerful tool to view, manipulate, and understand complex data and systems. Several JPL projects are already taking advantage of this capability, including the Mars Science Laboratory, Europa Clipper, and the Innovation Foundry. These tools, in the context of mission formulation, design, and operations have revealed several areas that offer strong potential for multi-mission solutions.
Formulation & Design
Rapid evaluation of the concept of operations (ConOps) is a key establishing step for all formulation projects. Being able to share the ConOps with all designers in a session is critical for syncing the context for the mission design. We will enable the ability to pull in preconfigured assets (spacecraft, planetary bodies, etc.) from a toolbox and quickly develop and share a mission plan.
Direct Robotics Operations
Users can visualize a remote environment to control robots with data overlays that inform scientific discovery. The ability to see what the robot is thinking (telemetry, state, path planning), overlaid on the reconstructed environment, allows for greatly enhanced situational awareness.
User Guidance & Training
The use of new tracking and object recognition technologies for storage and inventory of cleanrooms and the space station can be employed to improve human navigation in unfamiliar spaces. Route planning for robotic vehicles could implement virtual simulations with an accompanying front-end visualization. Human operators can be trained prior to and during execution of various procedures.
