Mars500 Project Gains Reliable Research Data With DiSTI's GL Studio

April 12, 2011 - PRLog -- The DiSTI Corporation, a leading provider of advanced graphical user
interface technology, supplied the award‐winning GL Studio software toolkit to enhance simulated research within the Mars500 project. GL Studio empowered the Human Machine Interface (HMI) design and control for the manned transportation rover simulation, creating the rover’s sophisticated graphical cockpits and depicting the complex behaviors that drive the actual Martian terrain vehicle.

Mars500 is a $15 million joint experiment run by the European Space Agency (ESA), Russia, and China, to study and bring feasible solutions to the complex psychological and technical challenges for long spaceflights. DiSTI’s GL Studio, an award‐wining suite of 2D and 3D graphical development tools, enabled the teams at JC Group Ltd and Information Meta Systems Company (IMS) to create high fidelity replications of the actual rover cockpit and controls, offering the pioneer space crew a realistic experience for their journey across the uncertain Martian terrain. With these virtual representations, the space crew can easily prepare for potential unfavorable scenarios, gain situational awareness of the rover cockpit, and complete vital exploration procedures of the mysterious “red” planet. GL Studio allowed engineers to rapidly generate these essential graphical user interfaces without losing the critical instrumentation cues necessary to produce the best possible training throughput results.

“This application allows users to fulfill exploration of the Martian surface inside a virtual environment. By using software developed by leading companies in the Modeling and Simulation industry, like DiSTI, we were able to provide researchers with the necessary tools for extracting useful scientific data. What is most important is that the interactive system enables not only a reduction in time and financial costs of such a complex experiment, but also a reduction of the risk associated with human mistake,” said Oleg Sobolev, IT Director of IMS.

“The manned transportation rover simulation provides a real opportunity to add a significant share of psychological stress within the work of the astronaut while he carries out a task outside of the takeoff and landing complex. High fidelity simulations, such as what is produced by GL Studio, increases the user’s perception of what’s happening, in which the researcher can attain reliable diagnostics of the user’s reactions,” said Eugene Chernyakov, CEO of JC Group Ltd.

Continued exploration of our solar system is central to the advancement of mankind and innovative manned flights beyond Earth’s orbit prove to be difficult. Running for more than eight months at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, the Mars500 Project is a study that facilitates the basis for possible countermeasures to resolve the unfavorable effects that may occur during a mission of this depth. Daily aspects of crew life, operational capabilities, and research can be accomplished with prior study and familiarity of all the facets of this mission. For more information about the progress on the Mars500 project, visit http://mars500.imbp.ru/en/index_e.html.

About DiSTI
DiSTI is a global leader in the development of Human Machine Interface software for businesses, governments and the military. The company’s flagship product, GL Studio, enables programmers and developers to build high‐fidelity graphics, 3D simulations and fully interactive controls into their models and real‐world device, enhancing the level of realism and sophistication, while improving learning and retention. More than 400 customers worldwide, including BAE, Boeing, Dassault, Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, Raytheon, and Thales, use DiSTI solutions to build maintenance trainers, create PC and Internet‐based courseware, as well as develop components for safety‐critical applications. As a full service provider, DiSTI offers a complement of customer programming and development services, and is the recognized leader in training solutions for the global simulation and training community. For more information, visit www.disti.com.

About JC Group Ltd
JC Group provides deliveries of the advanced software and equipment for a full cycle of virtual and augmented realities, industrial design, digital cinema and video production solutions, including performing development projects from scratch to reselling COTS software and hardware complexes. 15‐ year experience allowed JC Group to establish cooperation with leading manufacturers of equipment and to offer reliable solutions, innovational techniques and qualitative service.

About Information Meta Systems
Information Meta Systems was founded in 2010. It is engaged in content creation, simulation, visualization, HMI and virtual modeling for leading customers from aero‐space, military and infrastructure development industries in Russian Federation and the CIS.

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DiSTI is a global leader in the development of Human Machine Interface software. The company’s flagship products, GL Studio, enable programmers and developers to build high-fidelity graphics and fully interactive controls into their applications.