ESA Document - Emits - ESA

s
HMM
Assessment Study
Report: CDF-20(A)
February 2004
page 118 of 422
An essential feature of the network are the firewalls to enable the astronauts to communicate
with the world.
POP
Drop
Boxes
fire
wall
Global Information
2.11 Simulation
Ground stations network
TM/TC Space/Ground
Voice Video
Science Data
Private Communications
MARS
OCC
NCC
ESA
Planning
Team
Operational Network
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
POP
EAC
(Medical
Operations)
ATM
ESS
Engineering
Support Sites
Figure 2-60: HMM Communication Network
Ground/Ground Data
Video Conference
Voice Conference
Netmeeting
USOC
UHB
gateway to high
data rate I/F for
public relations
POP
(Point of
Presence)
UHB
The result of the simulation activity for the HMM study are movies in which the astronauts’
relative size with respect to the transfer vehicle and astronaut mobility are shown. The objective
of the simulation activity is to show that the astronauts have enough space and that there are no
obstacles to their movement around the vehicle.
The current tools used for simulation were not suitable, so a new tool had to be identified. The
selected tool had to facilitate the creation of astronaut characters and their manipulation. Also it
should be able to import the CAD data generated by the configuration engineers.
2.11.1 Simulation results
Two suitable software tools were considered: Maya 5 and Poser 5.
Maya is a solid tool used for the cinema industry for 3D animation, it had been used before for
the Exomars study. It therefore complies with the CAD import requirement. It also provides a
powerful dynamic engine, but unfortunately it is not very accurate; therefore it is not
recommended. The tools allows to import human characters, but a skeleton and skin deformers
had to be added to it manually later, which is time consuming.
Poser is a tool meant to generate human still poses with good quality and photo-realism. It also
provides a basic key framing animation tool to add dynamism to the characters. The main