Positional Awareness Map 3D (PAM3D)

Abstract

The Western Aeronautical Test Range of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center needed to address the aging software and hardware of its current situational awareness display application, the Global Real-Time Interactive Map (GRIM). GRIM was initially developed in the late 1980s and executes on older PC architectures using a Linux operating system that is no longer supported. Additionally, the software is difficult to maintain due to its complexity and loss of developer knowledge. It was decided that a replacement application must be developed or acquired in the near future. The replacement must provide the functionality of the original system, the ability to monitor test flight vehicles in real-time, and add improvements such as high resolution imagery and true 3-dimensional capability. This paper will discuss the process of determining the best approach to replace GRIM, and the functionality and capabilities of the first release of the Positional Awareness Map 3D.