DEVELOPING THE PLANCK MISSION SIMULATION AS A MULTI-PLATFORM IMMERSIVE APPLICATION

Planck is an international mission led by the European Space Agency with significant contribution by NASA, designed to measure the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest radiation of the universe, with the greatest accuracy and precision of any such CMB experiment to date. The present work was completed as part of the Planck Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) effort to communicate the results of Planck science to the public. The Planck Mission Simulation is a multiplatform, interactive visualization of the mission, from launch to orbital insertion to data gathering operations. The simulation was developed for a number of hardware and software configurations. Originally designed for a multi-screen virtual reality system, the scope of project grew to include other systems, including 3D kiosk displays, stereoscopic televisions, and domed-roomed systems. Implementation factors, technical details, and lessons learned from deployment on various platforms are discussed.