3-D Spacecraft Configuration Visualizer

plot_spacecraft_3d renders an interactive, rotatable 3-D model of a spacecraft directly from its MissionConfig. The figure is produced with Plotly and can be rotated, zoomed, and panned in any browser or Jupyter notebook without running a full DITL simulation.

Features

Spacecraft bus — lit, solid-shaded box with configurable dimensions.
Telescope assembly — cylindrical baffle tube with aperture ring, mid-tube baffle rings, and secondary mirror housing. Sized automatically from optics.aperture_m and optics.tube_length_m.
Solar panels — deep-blue solar cell faces on a silver frame. Uses PanelGeometry when configured, otherwise places panels on the bus face whose outward normal best matches the panel normal vector. Panel area is estimated from max_power.
Radiators — white/MLI panels placed on the bus face matching orientation.normal, sized by width_m × height_m.
Star trackers — small prism bodies with a coloured aperture face, one per configured tracker. Each gets a distinct boresight-arrow colour.
Body-frame axes — +X / +Y / +Z triad with labelled arrows (red, green, blue).
Normal / boresight arrows — outward-normal arrows for solar panels and radiators; boresight arrows for the telescope and each star tracker.

Coordinate system

All geometry is expressed in the spacecraft body frame:

Axis	Meaning
+X	Boresight / telescope pointing direction
+Y	Spacecraft “up”
+Z	Completes the right-handed system

Quick start

from conops.config import MissionConfig
from conops.visualization import plot_spacecraft_3d

config = MissionConfig.from_json_file("examples/example_config.json")
fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config)
fig.show()

No simulation run is needed — the visualizer reads geometry directly from the configuration.

Usage examples

Minimal default spacecraft

from conops.config import MissionConfig
from conops.visualization import plot_spacecraft_3d

# Default config gives a bus, one solar panel, one radiator, and one star tracker
fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(MissionConfig())
fig.show()

Custom Ritchey-Chrétien telescope

from conops.config import MissionConfig
from conops.config.instrument import Telescope, TelescopeConfig, TelescopeType, Payload
from conops.config.solar_panel import SolarPanel, SolarPanelSet, create_solar_panel_vector
from conops.visualization import plot_spacecraft_3d

config = MissionConfig(
    payload=Payload(instruments=[
        Telescope(
            name="Primary",
            boresight=(1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
            optics=TelescopeConfig(
                aperture_m=0.5,
                focal_length_m=3.5,
                tube_length_m=1.6,
                telescope_type=TelescopeType.RITCHEY_CHRETIEN,
            ),
        )
    ]),
    solar_panel=SolarPanelSet(panels=[
        SolarPanel(name="Panel +Y", normal=create_solar_panel_vector("sidemount"),         max_power=1200.0),
        SolarPanel(name="Panel -Y", normal=create_solar_panel_vector("sidemount", cant_z=180.0), max_power=1200.0),
    ]),
)

fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config, title="RC Telescope — Dual Wing Config")
fig.show()

Overriding the bus box size

# bus_half_dims = (half_X, half_Y, half_Z) in metres
fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config, bus_half_dims=(1.2, 0.65, 0.65))
fig.show()

Hiding normal vectors or axes

# Clean view without arrows
fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config, show_normals=False, show_axes=False)
fig.show()

Embedding in a Jupyter notebook

# The figure is a standard go.Figure — display inline with:
fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config)
fig  # Jupyter evaluates this cell and renders the Plotly widget

Saving to HTML

fig = plot_spacecraft_3d(config)
fig.write_html("spacecraft_model.html")

Visual elements reference

Element	Colour	Source in config
Spacecraft bus	Silver-gray	`bus_half_dims` parameter (default 1.0 × 0.55 × 0.55 m)
Telescope tube	Dark gunmetal	`payload.instruments` (`instrument_type = "Telescope"`)
Aperture / baffle rings	Gold	`optics.aperture_m`, `optics.tube_length_m`
Solar cell faces	Deep blue	`solar_panel.panels[*].normal`, `PanelGeometry`
Solar panel frames	Silver	Derived from panel geometry
Radiators	White / MLI	`spacecraft_bus.radiators.radiators[*]`
Star tracker body	Dark gray	`spacecraft_bus.star_trackers.star_trackers[*]`
Star tracker aperture	Per-tracker colour	One of orange / hotpink / cyan / limegreen / gold / violet
+X axis	Red	Hard-coded body frame
+Y axis	Limegreen	Hard-coded body frame
+Z axis	Dodgerblue	Hard-coded body frame
Panel / radiator normals	Yellow	`normal` / `orientation.normal`
Telescope boresight	Cyan	`boresight`
Star tracker boresights	Per-tracker colour	`orientation.boresight`

Panel placement rules

When a PanelGeometry is attached to a solar panel or radiator, its center_m, u, v, width_m, and height_m fields are used directly.

When no PanelGeometry is set the visualizer falls back to automatic face placement:

Dot-product the component normal against the six bus face normals.
Select the face with the largest dot product.
Place the component centre just outside that face (gap is component-specific; e.g. 20 mm for solar panels and 5 mm for radiators) and orient the panel spanning directions perpendicular to the face normal.

Solar panel size is estimated from max_power assuming 150 W/m² (solar constant × typical conversion efficiency). Radiator size comes directly from width_m and height_m.