VTS Visualization & Synchronization Platform (with PrestoTools)

VTS (Visual Test/Simulation) is an extensible mission visualisation and synchronisation platform that Spacebel supports as part of its Modelling & Simulation product line, used across well-known space missions and academic research. Rather than trying to do everything, VTS focuses specifically on synchronising and visualising data, leaving domain-specific functionality to bundled or user-developed client applications.

VTS is not a single application but a workshop for creating projects and synchronising multiple client applications in time. Its core component, the Broker, controls and synchronises all connected client applications during visualisation of a VTS project. Standard bundled clients include Celestia (an open-source 3D space simulation viewer based on the Hipparcos Catalogue), SurfaceView (multi-projection planetary maps showing satellite orbits, ground stations, sensor footprints and mission events), SensorView (projection of the celestial sphere as seen from a satellite sensor), SkyView (2D star chart of celestial bodies and satellites), and ZenithView (half-celestial-sphere view from a specific ground station). A simple communication protocol allows integration of custom or existing user applications.

VTS accepts data either from text files in CIC/CCSDS format, suitable for multiple data types and easy to generate and edit, or from real-time sources such as simulations or a satellite control centre (VTS has notably been used live from the ATV Control Centre). Complementing VTS, Spacebel also provides the PrestoTools suite for mission operations, including PrestoPlot®, a simple and user-friendly tool for plotting time-based data such as telemetry, simulation results or experimental records.