Celine Cherian

Bachelor's

Mechanical Engineering

Mathematics

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Camera-based Terrain Relative Navigation Algorithm Development Intern

• Implement Generic LAnder Simulation in Simulink (GLASS), MIRROR, and optical feature-tracking algorithms in support of TRN development for lunar landers (virtual internship from Marshall Space Flight Center) Abstract: MIRROR stands for Modular Interface for Real-time Replication Of Reality. It is a 3D visualization tool that allows you to analyze GN&C of spacecraft in a realistic environment. Currently, the terrain being developed is the lunar surface, although any celestial body can be implemented. MIRROR is built off Unreal Engine 4.27 (UE4). The 6DoF simulation tool – or what is generating the GN&C – is called GLASS. GLASS is built in MATLAB/Simulink and sends output data (trajectory, attitude, thrust, etc.) to MIRROR through UDP. This data is then processed on the MIRROR side to generate the visualization. MIRROR is built on the Blueprints framework, which don’t require any prior coding knowledge. A developer has the full ability to customize the environment, implement new CAD models, include new terrain, and so on. This internship is focused on converting digital elevation maps (DEM) of the moon from the latitude, longitude, and altitude framework to local East-North-Up (ENU) framework to upload to Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine needs DEMs to be small enough and a certain file type in to show them in 3D visualization. The MATLAB code used to convert DEMs is almost complete and can be further improved by splitting large DEM files into smaller tiles before converting the framework of the DEM to the format needed by Unreal Engine.