Components
Done
Ion Thrusters are now available within the satellite builder, with options to draw power from the EPS network into thrust.
Done
Heaters are now available within the satellite builder, which can be connected to the thermal network for supplying heat to the chassis, and hence the nearby components, via conduction. The heater can also draw power from the battery via a heater management system.
Done
Component materials and geometry can now be configured for each individual physical component, including the chassis. The materials enable using a standard material (aluminum, titanium, etc.) or a custom material for setting the conductivity and emissivity properties for use with radiation and thermal modelling. The geometry information also provides a density and thickness specifier.
Done
Added in radiation panels for radiation modelling and shielding based on the geometric and material properties of the components. This can be used for calculating the total ionization dose (TID) from solar radiation.
Done
Added in a docking adapter for docking two objects together. Provided both objects have a docking adapter, they can be docked together when in range if the two spacecraft are aligned. This will attach the two spacecraft together as a single rigid-body with shared physics. The docking adapter UI can be used to specify the target of the other docking adapter to use.
Done
Added a mass storage component that can be used for sharing resources when docked, along with simply just being a mass container on the spacecraft.
Done
Updated the thruster and fuel system so that the thrusters automatically connected to the fuel tanks and vice-a-versa for fuel management.
BUG
Fixed an issue on the infra-red camera not correctly displaying the temperature of components. It now works with the new thermal system and can read the temperature of thermal objects correctly.
BUG
Fixed an issue with connecting power components together which caused the components to break when they were removed from the chassis. This was an issue with the battery and solar panel components.
BUG
Updated the power bus automatic connections to support more types of components and power models, automatically connecting them to a single power bus on the spacecraft.
External Integration
Done
Added a external data tab that enables configuring of publishing simulation data from Studio from any component in a specific form. This includes TXT, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML or binary. The data can be exported from Studio via a save file, over MQTT, a TCP connection or a USB serial connection. This can be used for single-direction HITL scenarios.
Done
Two standard CCSDS messages can be exported out of the simulation; the attitude data message (ADM) and the orbit data message (ODM). These can be found, and updated, on the spacecraft properties panel.
Ground Objects
Done
Added a default vessel class that can be used for maritime scenarios, including the option to give it a color for identification and change the scale of the vessel.
Simulation
Done
A complex first-degree thermal system has been implemented, enabling components attached to the chassis to dissipate heat energy via radiation or conduction.
BUG
Fixed a bug with reloading a recently opened simulation that was causing it to reload at an incorrect point in time.
Spacecraft
BUG
Fixed an issue with namings of duplicated spacecraft with the same spacecraft schematics, causing collisions with names.
Space Range
DONE
Added in a maritime surveillance maritime scenario for tracking shipping vessels around the US naval regions and using geostationary-based spacecraft for Earth observation monitoring of the vessel movement to determine anomalous vessel activity.
DONE
Each packet from space range now also includes a UTC timestamp of the data as per the simulation epoch in addition to the relative simulation time in seconds.
BUG
Fixed an issue when a connection to the MQTT server is dropped in space range, now enabling the user to reconnect during the middle of a scenario.
UI
DONE
Added dynamic tooltips that are shown when hovering mouse over any of the buttons present in Studio, clearly explaining what each button or property does.
DONE
Added context actions to the property data fields for component properties, including automatically plotting the data to the nearest plot or viewing the documentation on that property.
DONE
Added component property descriptions for each of the properties shown in the ‘Data’ tab of the components by selecting the context menu and viewing the property information. This is also shown on the plot properties.
DONE
Added a filter option and additional examples to the example scenarios panel. The filter can be used to search for particular examples by keyword or title. More information can be found in Running Examples.
DONE
The ground map can be used for selecting a particular entity by selecting the object on the ground map itself. More information can be found in Ground Map Panel.
DONE
The thermal management system now has a dedicated UI section on the spacecraft models for enabling automatically connecting the components together via the thermal system, using either conduction or radiation modelling, and the material and geometric properties of the components.
DONE
Added an option for triggering events that are created on the spacecraft via the timeline tab. This will be able to be executed during the simulation time.
DONE
Added an option to rename plot properties, including correctly saving the names of the properties, to the plotting system. This can be done by selecting the name and typing in a new non-empty name of the property.
DONE
Added an option to view the value of a bar-chart property, simply by moving the mouse cursor over the bar and it will display the current value in a tooltip.
DONE
Updated the Properties Panel to enable plotting of behaviors, models and message data from each component, spacecraft and entity. Additionally, added more default options to the properties including reaction wheel data, thermal data and other sensor plots.
DONE
Added a basic tutorial for the first time Studio is launched with information on how to open and run an example scenario. This can be shown again by selecting the ‘tutorial’ button in the toolbar.
DONE
The main window panels; the left and right columns, timeline and property panels, can now be resized using the mouse cursor. The size of these columns can also be saved to the Studio save file and reloaded in the same proportions as before.
DONE
Updated the heatmap system, which can be turned on via the Viewport Properties, and customized on the Viewport UI. This enables setting both an automatic range of the heatmap coloring or a fixed range specified by the user, between a minimum and maximum value.
Done
Updated the Inventory Panel with easier search features and automatically switching the tabs between new spacecraft and chassis objects. The inventory now also disables components that cannot be added to specific entity types.
BUG
Fixed an issue with plots not continuing to plot once the ‘database’ tracking has been turned off during the simulation.
BUG
Updated the space range user-interface for the team viewer for ensuring the spacecraft can be identified correctly.
Bug
Fixed the properties on the camera component UI enabling the user to configure camera properties during a simulation and be able to modify those changes to the camera during real-time. This includes adjusting the field of view and aperture of the camera.
Bug
Fixed the border colors of pop-out windows to make the windows easier to see in contrast with the main Studio window.
Bug
Ensured that plot properties cannot be NaN values, ensuring the plots do not exceed infinity and can be scaled correctly.
Universe
DONE
Increased the resolution of the Earth maps from 16K to 64K, enabling higher resolution Earth observation imagery of the Earth and closer views of the Earth’s surface.