New Simulation Tool Targets Martian Landing Operations

Diamond Visionics has completed a contract through Metis to deliver GenesisMars to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The system is a Martian visual simulation environment built on the company's GenesisRTX rendering engine, designed to support Martian landing and rover operations.

Developing a realistic Martian environment required solving atmospheric and geological challenges unique to the planet. "We were successful in creating a physics-based atmospheric model to properly represent Mars," said Daniel Peters, Sales Manager at Diamond Visionics. "Because Martian air is thin and filled with fine grained hematite, the daytime sky is typically a red-orange color. However, during dawn and dusk, the GenesisMars atmospheric scattering model creates the unique 'blue halo around the sun' phenomenon by mathematically accounting for the hematite content in Martian dust."

GenesisMars runs on GPU architecture and multi-core processors, delivering real-time visualization directly from GIS source data with no pre-built database required. The system includes procedural detail texturing, precision ephemeris modeling driven by JPL's SPICE toolkit, and true round planet modeling using a Mars-centered coordinate system. It also supports dynamic environments with moving models and static surface features updated continuously during runtime.