Cesium for Omniverse v0.29.0

Cesium for Unity Samples v1.26.0

CesiumJS 1.146

Aerospace

In March 2026, Iran struck Prince Sultan Air Base near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wounding US servicemembers and damaging aircraft. CNN journalists hypothesized that Russian satellites supported Iran’s intelligence before the attack. To evaluate this possibility, reporters worked with Kayhan Space, a spaceflight safety, operations, and intelligence company. Kayhan used its flagship product Satcat, whose geospatial and orbital visualization is built on CesiumJS, to verify satellite capabilities and behavior. 

Kayhan Space uses CesiumJS in Satcat. The team, with Satcat AI Analyst, examined Russian satellite capabilities and behavior, assisting CNN in reporting that Iranian attacks on Prince Sultan Air Base in March 2026 may have been supported by Russian intelligence. Courtesy Kayhan Space.

Kayhan Space Satcat: Russian Satellites Orbiting Earth in March 2026

Colorado-based Kayhan Space was founded in 2019 as a spaceflight safety company. One of its first flagship products, Pathfinder, was launched in 2022, with orbital visualization built on Cesium. As Kayhan expanded to deliver satellite operations capabilities and analytics, Pathfinder’s capabilities were integrated into Satcat in 2024 alongside new intelligence tools and public-facing features, making parts of the platform available to the public for the first time. Satcat's spaceflight safety capabilities provide operator coordination, risk assessment reports for close approaches, and recommendations for mitigating risk, aligning with operators’ workflows.  

Despite its vastness, space is a busy place, and information can be noisy: Are numbers calculated correctly? Does the data adhere to standards? What is this spacecraft’s history? Is it behaving normally? Is its owner friendly or an adversary? And, of course, what do you want to do about it? 

Some of Kayhan Space’s users are Capella Space, AST SpaceMobile, NOAA, and now CNN.  

COSMOS 2573 is a Russian EO satellite. This simulation shows satellite paths and visibility cones. Courtesy Kayhan Space.

Kayhan Space Satcat: Russian Satellites and Viz Cones

Hyun Seo, Chief Product Officer at Kayhan Space, employed an AI-assisted analysis tool within Satcat to begin examining capabilities and behavior of the entire Russian satellite fleet. “What Russian satellites had the best visibility over Prince Sultan Air Base in March?” he prompted the AI. 

Working with the CNN team, Seo dug in to fact-check the results and use Satcat to build accurate 3D simulations, based on time of day, weather, orbit, and satellite function. Inactive satellites as well as navigation and communications satellites, for example, moved off the list, but electro-optical (EO), synthetic aperture radar (SAR), radio frequency (RF), and infrared (IR) were in play. 

Seo recorded the simulations directly from the app, moving from analysis to broadcast-ready visualization, and used only public data so that CNN journalists could repeat his steps—verifying in 3D with their own tooling and sources, vital for accurate reporting. Seo also created primers on EO, SAR, RF, and IR for the CNN broadcast, including the Cesium globe for geospatial context and visual consistency but with larger-than-life models of the satellites for illustration for a broad audience. 

Seo created primers on EO, SAR, RF, and IR for CNN’s broadcast. Courtesy Kayhan Space.

Kayhan Space Satcat: SAR Primer

Satcat gets public data on spacecraft and debris ownership, launch, position, weather, mission, and more from Space-Track, Celestrak, NOAA, the European Space Agency, and other providers. Position data comes as TLEs with SGP4 propagation, and users can add proprietary data for their own constellations. Privileged access gives users the SP Catalog from the US Space Force with synthetic covariance as well as owner/operator ephemerides. Instead of separate spreadsheets, Satcat fuses data streams with a 3D globe in CesiumJS for accurate, immersive visualization and analysis in a browser.  

“We get value from the tech, Sandcastles and reference material, and community. Even with AI coding tools, it’s just not worth using something else. We use Cesium because we’re not just concerned with the visualization but with the maths,” said Seo. 

The 3D models of satellites Seo shared with CNN are glTF/glb. The models were not streamed with the simulation; CNN added the models to the recording for the broadcast. The underlying data and orbit paths remained grounded in Kayhan Space’s analysis, so reporters used real space data as evidence of Russian intelligence support ahead of Iranian missile attacks on Prince Sultan Air Base. 

3D model of a Bars-M EO satellite for Russian military intelligence, like Cosmos 2573. Courtesy Kayhan Space.

Kayhan Space Satcat: Bars-M Satellite Model

With accurate data visualized and analyzed in Kayhan Space’s CesiumJS-powered Satcat, journalists were able to verify information and create a visual story viewers could understand. You can watch the full CNN Investigates clip here. 

Detail and accuracy are foundations of the Cesium platform. Learn to build your own time-dynamic visualization and simulation app for space with CesiumJS. 

Kayhan Space Investigates Satellite Intelligence for CNN with CesiumJS 

Space missions are complex to plan, execute, and communicate to audiences with varying knowledge and interests. To retain engineering accuracy while bringing charts and strings of numbers to life, Blacknight Space’s Event Horizon uses CesiumJS for mission plans and milestones. 

Views in Event Horizon seamlessly transition from Earth centric to Moon centric—and beyond—to meet the needs of complex storytelling. Courtesy Blacknight Space.

Space missions are complex to plan, execute, and communicate to audiences with varying knowledge and interests. To retain engineering accuracy while bringing charts and strings of numbers to life, Blacknight Space’s Event Horizon uses CesiumJS for mission plans and milestones.

Blacknight Space Event Horizon

Event Horizon is an interactive, browser-based 3D mission visualization platform, designed for space operators, engineers, and technical marketers to deliver a dynamic showcase of mission plans and milestones. Teams can confirm trajectories, review events, and educate stakeholders and the public.  The application was recently released as an early beta version.

Blacknight Space supports commercial aerospace companies and US defense organizations, aiming to make the industry dramatically more efficient through digital engineering solutions. Blacknight is an Ansys partner for Digital Mission Engineering and shares AGI heritage with Cesium, championing tools for simulations in challenging environments. 

“Cesium technology is part of our DNA,” said Nate McBee, VP of product and engineering at Blacknight Space.

An Event Horizon overview highlights the Artemis II mission. Courtesy Blacknight Space. 

Blacknight has been developing Event Horizon on CesiumJS since day one, enabling users across the globe to explore live orbital telemetry, verified flight trajectories, and mission milestones in a browser. (Organizations with sensitive information can employ an on-prem version of Event Horizon.) Users have access to curated data from trusted public satellite databases and can bring their own data—trajectory, attitude, and error ellipsoids, among others. 

Event Horizon connects to Cesium ion to provide Cesium World Terrain plus satellite imagery; Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles; and Cesium Moon when mission views bring the user close to Earth or our moon, to ensure efficient streaming of these massive datasets over the web. Users can connect their own ion accounts, too. The app provides models of spacecraft, such as the International Space Station and satellites, and those are rendered as glTF/.glb.  

Views seamlessly transition from Earth centric to Moon centric—and beyond—to meet the needs of complex storytelling. Planners and communicators authoring mission narratives with Event Horizon can add saved views and notes to indicate plans and milestones, like stage separations, payload deployments, or rendezvous, in immersive 4D. Blacknight works closely with partners, such as Cesium and COMSPOC, on physics, ephemeris, and rendering, ensuring accurate representation. 

Event Horizon's web interface provides an interactive 3D representation of space operations, mission milestones, and analytics. Courtesy Blacknight Space. 

“Our end users and customers always comment on how nice the visualizations look, and, in the space industry, accurate visualization is a critical aspect of mission planning and situational awareness. Cesium helps us paint that accurate picture,” McBee said. 

With Cesium’s roots in aerospace and defense, CesiumJS brings out-of-the-box capability to Event Horizon, but its openness and extensibility mean Blacknight can mold it further, implementing unique visualizations and data streams. Blacknight has another advantage, though: two of the organization’s aerospace engineers are Cesium Certified Developers, and McBee estimates they can do in 25% of their time what would require someone else’s full-time efforts. The team gets to their aerospace expertise quickly, while Cesium handles the geospatial context and rendering. 

“Being part of a company that's growing the Cesium ecosystem, after helping others share what they can do, shows how the Cesium community drives real progress,” said Kyle Heisey, director of operations at Blacknight Space. Heisey launched and managed the CCD program when he was a Cesium employee. 

Watch Klaus Konarkowski’s 2026 Cesium Developer Conference breakout session to learn about the role Cesium plays in Event Horizon.

Aerospace visualization with telemetry streaming, propagation and mission events - Klaus Konarkowski

As Blacknight continues its work on Event Horizon, the team is planning support for unique coordinate systems, relative orbit frames, and mobile performance.  

Bring real-world understanding to complicated narratives with CesiumJS and a Cesium ion account. 

Blacknight Space’s Event Horizon Showcases Mission Plans and Milestones with CesiumJS

人工衛星が取得するデータ量は急速に増大している。将来的には、地球観測衛星だけでも1日あたりペタバイト級のデータが生成されるとも予測されている。こうした膨大なデータをすべて地上に送信してから処理する従来の方式では、通信帯域や地上局数の制約から限界に近づきつつある。 

こうした課題に対し、NTTソフトウェアイノベーションセンタでは「宇宙データセンタ」と呼ばれるコンピューティングアーキテクチャの研究開発が進められている。この取り組みでは、人工衛星上でAI推論などのデータ処理を実行し、重要な情報のみを地上に送信することで、通信効率の向上と迅速なデータ活用を目指している。 

このアーキテクチャの設計や検証を支える可視化の試みとして、Webベースの3D地球可視化エンジンであるCesiumJSが活用されている。

宇宙でAIが動く新しいデータ処理モデル 

その中核の一つとなるのが、衛星軌道および衛星間通信リンクを統合的にシミュレーションできる基盤である。 

従来の地球観測ワークフローは、次のような流れで構成されていた。 

これに対し、NTTが検討している新しいモデルでは、 

重要な情報のみを地上へ送信 
という処理アーキテクチャが採用されている。  

NTTの技術展示イベント「NTT R&Dフォーラム2025」で公開されたデモでは、人工物検知アルゴリズムを用いて重要領域のみを抽出することで、送信データ量を約96%削減できる可能性が示された。 

ハイパースペクトルデータ（疑似RGB画像）: 衛星上で取得された観測データ（ハイパースペクトルデータ）の可視化例。（提供：NTT）

AI処理による重要領域抽出結果（データ削減後）: 同データに対してAI処理を適用し、重要または異常と判断された領域のみを抽出した例。（提供：NTT）

このアプローチは単なる通信効率の改善にとどまらない。 
限られた通信帯域の中で「どの情報を優先して地上へ送るか」を選別できるため、 

インフラの異常検知 
といった迅速な判断が求められる分野での応用が期待されている。  

宇宙データセンタのアーキテクチャでは、単一の衛星ではなく、複数の要素が連携する分散システムが想定されている。 
例えば次のような要素が同時に関係する。 

時間とともに変化するネットワーク構造  

宇宙データセンタの概念を可視化したもので、衛星上でのデータ処理の様子を示している。（提供：NTT） 

Visualization of a space data center concept, showing satellite-based processing in orbit. Courtesy NTT. 
宇宙データセンタの概念を可視化したもので、衛星上でのデータ処理の様子を示している。（提供：NTT）

NTT: space data center concept

NTTでは、宇宙データセンタを構成する衛星群の軌道や通信リンク、軌道上でのAI処理を統合的にシミュレーションできるライブラリも開発している。しかし、衛星数やシミュレーション期間が増えるにつれて、可視化処理の負荷が増大し、研究環境の制約になるケースも見られた。 

この課題に対し、NTTでは大規模な軌道シミュレーションのための可視化環境の構築・検証にCesiumJSを用いた。 

CesiumJSを用いた宇宙システムの可視化 

NTTが可視化の選択肢を比較検討する中で、CesiumJSのいくつかの特徴が有効であることが分かった。 

CZMLによる時間変化を伴うオブジェクト表現 
衛星軌道や通信リンクを自然に表現できる  

Webブラウザ上での高性能レンダリング 
大規模シミュレーションでも操作性を維持できる  

地理空間データとの統合 
地形や衛星画像と組み合わせて地球上の文脈で理解できる  

CesiumJSを用いることで、衛星の軌道、通信リンク、観測対象地点などを3D地球上で直感的に把握できる可視化環境が実現された。 

分散ネットワークアーキテクチャにおける衛星間通信リンクの可視化。（提供：NTT） 

Inter-satellite communication links visualized in a distributed network architecture. Courtesy NTT. 
分散ネットワークアーキテクチャにおける衛星間通信リンクの可視化。（提供：NTT）

NTT: inter-satellite communication links

また、Cesium ionの地理空間データを組み合わせることで、宇宙空間の挙動と地球上の観測対象を同時に把握することが可能になっている。

可視化・分析レイヤとしてのCesium 

本プロジェクトにおいて、Cesiumは可視化および分析のレイヤーとして機能する。 

オンボード処理パイプラインの構築や、前処理・AI推論フローの設計を担っているのは、NTTが開発した low-code / no-code のパイプライン設計ツールである。 

CesiumJS は、そうした処理構成や実行結果を3次元空間上で可視化・分析するためのレイヤとして機能している。衛星軌道、通信リンク、観測地点、センサー由来データやAI推論結果を地形やインフラと統合して表示することで、研究者やエンジニアはシステム全体の挙動を直感的に把握できる。 

Cesiumはパイプラインを「設計する」ためのインタフェースではない。一方で、複雑な宇宙分散システムがどのように振る舞っているかを“観測可能”にし、仮説検証や異常の発見、関係者間での認識共有を支援する。 

このようにCesiumは、NTTの設計ツール群と連携しながら、研究開発を加速する可視化・分析基盤として重要な役割を果たしている。 

研究開発を加速する可視化基盤 

可視化部分をCZMLベースの構成に整理したことで、ソフトウェア構成はシンプルになり、開発効率も向上した。 
その結果、研究チームは開発開始から約2か月でプロトタイプをNTT R&Dフォーラムに展示することができた。 

可視化の実装やレンダリング最適化にかかる負担が軽減されたことで、研究者はより多くの時間を、軌道計算や通信リンク成立判定、分散処理アーキテクチャ設計などの宇宙データセンタの実現に向けた中核機能の研究開発に集中できるようになった。 

現在のプロトタイプでは、主にCZMLを用いた衛星軌道や通信リンクの可視化が中心となっている。将来的に衛星コンステレーション規模が拡大し、より大規模なデータ可視化処理が必要になった場合には、3D Tilesなどの階層的ストリーミング技術の活用も検討されている。 

宇宙で処理し、地上で理解する。その橋渡し役として、空間可視化技術の重要性は今後ますます高まっていくだろう。 

Cesiumでは、NTTのように新しい宇宙コンピューティングアーキテクチャを探求する組織が、複雑なシステムを理解し共有するための基盤としてCesiumを活用していることを嬉しく思います。 

他の航空宇宙企業のCesium活用例についてもぜひご覧ください。 

NTT Explores a Space Data Center Architecture with Cesium for On-Orbit AI and Satellite Network Visualization

The volume of data collected by satellites is increasing rapidly. In the future, even Earth observation satellites alone are expected to generate data at the petabyte-per-day scale. Under the conventional approach of transmitting all of this data to the ground before processing, limitations in communication bandwidth and the number of available ground stations are becoming increasingly significant. 

To address this challenge, NTT Software Innovation Center is conducting research and development on a computing architecture referred to as the “Space Data Center.” In this approach, data processing such as AI inference is executed onboard satellites, and only important information is transmitted to the ground, with the goal of improving communication efficiency and enabling faster use of data. 

As part of the effort to support the design and validation of this architecture, NTT is using CesiumJS, a web-based 3D globe visualization engine. 

A new data processing model in which AI operates in space 

One of the core elements is a platform capable of integrated simulation of satellite orbits and inter-satellite communication links. 

A conventional Earth observation workflow has typically consisted of the following steps: 

A satellite observes Earth’s surface.  

Analysis and processing are performed on Earth.  

By contrast, in the new model being explored by NTT, the processing architecture is: 

Only important information is transmitted to the ground.  

In a demonstration presented at NTT’s technology showcase event, NTT R&D Forum 2025, an object-detection algorithm was used to extract only important regions, showing the possibility of reducing transmitted data volume by approximately 96%. 

Hyperspectral data (pseudo-RGB visualization): Example of observation data (hyperspectral data) acquired onboard a satellite, visualized as a pseudo-RGB image. Courtesy NTT. 

AI-processed result highlighting regions of interest (after data reduction): Example of applying AI processing to the same dataset, extracting only regions identified as significant or anomalous. Courtesy NTT. 

This approach is not limited to improving communication efficiency alone. 

Because it makes it possible to select which information should be prioritized for transmission to the ground within limited communication bandwidth, it is expected to be applicable in fields requiring rapid decision-making, such as: 

A distributed system expanding into space 

The Space Data Center architecture assumes not a single satellite but a distributed system in which multiple elements work together. 

For example, the following elements are involved simultaneously: 

network structures that evolve over time.  

Visualization of a space data center concept, showing satellite-based processing in orbit. Courtesy NTT. 

NTT has also developed a library capable of integrated simulation of the satellite orbits, communication links, and onboard AI processing involved in the Space Data Center. However, as the number of satellites and the simulation duration increased, the computational load of visualization also increased, becoming a constraint in the research environment in some cases. 

To address this issue, NTT conducted development and validation of a visualization environment using CesiumJS for large-scale orbital simulations. 

Visualizing space systems with CesiumJS 

As NTT evaluated different visualization options, several characteristics of CesiumJS proved effective: 

Object representation with temporal changes using CZML: 
Orbital paths and communication links can be represented naturally.  

High-performance rendering in a web browser: 
Operability can be maintained even in large-scale simulations.  

Integration with geospatial data: 
Space systems can be understood in the context of Earth by combining them with terrain and satellite imagery.  

By using CesiumJS, NTT created a visualization environment in which satellite orbits, communication links, and observation target locations can be intuitively understood on a 3D globe. 

Inter-satellite communication links visualized in a distributed network architecture. Courtesy NTT. 

In addition, by combining it with geospatial data from Cesium ion, it becomes possible to understand space-based behavior and Earth-based observation targets at the same time. 

In this project, Cesium plays a central role as a visualization and analysis layer. 

NTT’s low-code/no-code pipeline design tool provides the primary interface for configuring onboard processing workflows, including preprocessing steps and AI inference pipelines. 

CesiumJS serves as the visualization and analysis layer that complements this design environment. By visualizing system configurations, sensor data, and processing outputs in a unified 3D context, Cesium enables researchers and engineers to intuitively 

inspect, validate, and reason about complex onboard behaviors more effectively. 

Rather than acting as a pipeline authoring interface, Cesium focuses on making system behavior observable.   

This visualization-driven analysis shortens iteration cycles by helping researchers identify anomalies, evaluate assumptions, and communicate findings across interdisciplinary teams. In this way, Cesium provides a foundational layer that accelerates R&D while integrating seamlessly with NTT’s broader toolchain. 

A visualization foundation that accelerates R&D 

By reorganizing the visualization component into a CZML-based structure, the software configuration became simpler and development efficiency improved. 

As a result, the research team was able to demonstrate a prototype at NTT R&D Forum, in approximately two months from the start of development. 

By reducing the burden associated with visualization implementation and rendering optimization, researchers were able to spend more time focusing on the research and development of core functions required to realize the Space Data Center, such as orbital calculations, communication link validation, and distributed processing architecture design. 

In the current prototype, visualization mainly focuses on satellite orbits and communication links represented using CZML. In the future, as satellite constellation scale increases and larger-scale visualization processing becomes necessary, the use of hierarchical streaming technologies such as 3D Tiles is also being considered. 

Process in space, and understand on Earth. As a bridge between the two, the importance of geospatial visualization technology is expected to grow even further. 

At Cesium, we are pleased to see organizations like NTT—exploring new space computing architectures—use Cesium as a foundation for understanding and sharing complex systems. 

Please also explore how other aerospace companies are using Cesium. 

 Cesiumで可視化する軌道上AIと衛星ネットワーク ――  NTTが探る「宇宙データセンタ」アーキテクチャ

As the Orion spacecraft journeyed around the moon during the historic Artemis II mission, space enthusiasts around the world have tracked its progress with Orbit Codex’s online flight tracker. Built on CesiumJS, the flight tracker offers an interactive 3D view of the spacecraft’s location and trajectory.

The Artemis II tracker in Orbit Codex shows the flight of the Orion spacecraft in CesiumJS using trajectory data from the JPL Horizons API.

Artemis II Tracker from Orbit Codex

Orbit Codex has tracked the real-time location of the Orion spacecraft from the moment of its launch using trajectory data from the JPL Horizons API. The interactive 3D capabilities in CesiumJS allow users to move forward and backward in time along the ship’s planned path, making it easy to understand orbital motion and mission phases.

Viewing the Artemis II mission in interactive 3D makes it possible to visualize the relative motion of Earth and the Moon together with Orion’s flight path.

With roots in the aerospace industry, Cesium was designed from its inception for the high precision, time dynamic demands of space visualizations. A highly accurate WGS84 ellipsoid model of Earth and skybox with correct star and Sun positions, combined with its ability to efficiently render solar system–scale data directly in the browser makes CesiumJS the engine of choice for numerous space applications.

“Orbit Codex is a massive database of over 14,000 entities across the entire solar system, including rocket launches, over 8,000 satellites, and extensive space debris. I needed a WebGL engine capable of rendering a massive swarm of live objects smoothly. Cesium is the absolute gold standard for handling that level of scale.” 

The Artemis II tracker is only one small piece of Orbit Codex. As space exploration has expanded across governments and commercial sectors, information about launches, spacecraft, and missions has become wider spread. Frustrated by the fragmented nature of space data, founder Bret van Putten harnessed his professional expertise as an AI consultant and startup founder to build a comprehensive real-time space operations platform. 

Orbit Codex brings together data from dozens of sources into one unified, interactive platform that tracks launches, spacecraft, astronauts, and missions across the solar system. Data drawn from The Space Devs API is enhanced with hand curated data and a custom Google Vertex AI pipeline that uses search grounding to autonomously collect and structure historical data from verified sources.

In addition to tracking the Artemis II mission, Orbit Codex uses CesiumJS to visualize numerous other activities in space. Here moon rovers are shown on Cesium Moon data. Courtesy Orbit Codex.

Across Orbit Codex, CesiumJS acts as both a visualization engine to illustrate concepts and as a spatial index for accessing the site’s datasets. Users can dive into a detailed dossier on any entity and then instantly launch into a real-time 3D environment showing a base’s launch pads, a satellite’s current orbit, or a planet’s surface.

Visitors to Orbit Codex transition seamlessly between detailed information about numerous space topics and 3D visualizations in CesiumJS, like this view of the launch pads at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Orbit Codex’s extensive encyclopedia covers 18 categories, from moonbases to rovers. Visitors can explore detailed views of more than 350 launch and landing sites in CesiumJS, read about propulsion systems, view a catalog of the more than 350 organizations working in space, and read the profiles of more than 800 astronauts. They can also track over 20,000 Earth-orbiting satellites and debris in a CesiumJS visualization that pulls TLE data from the CelesTrak and Space-Track catalogs. Space debris entries are enhanced by ESA DISCOS data describing physical properties such as mass and dimensions. Visitors will also find models of all eight planets in the solar system; Orbit Codex uses Cesium Mars and Cesium Moon for off-Earth terrain and imagery. 

Orbit Codex is a comprehensive repository of information about space, bringing together historical and current data from public and private enterprises, as with this entry on the Athena lunar lander.

As this Artemis mission draws to a close, Orbit Codex’s journey is just beginning. The site is growing to become a “space time machine” that allows users to scrub back to 1969 to watch a replay of Apollo 11, to follow active missions from launch to touchdown, or to look ahead to future space infrastructure, such as moon bases, habitats, and space elevators.

Orbit Codex points both forward and backward in time, creating an archive of past missions to space and looking ahead to humanity’s future forays into the universe.

CesiumJS provides the aerospace-grade precision and planetary scale for these ambitious plans. Sign up for your own Cesium ion account to begin developing with Cesium.

Orbit Codex Tracks Flight of Artemis II in CesiumJS

Last year, Cesium released the first readily accessible, comprehensive 3D Tileset of the Moon. Today, we are excited to introduce Cesium Mars. Cesium Mars is a 3D Tileset to enable developers, researchers, and mission planners to create visualizations and simulations of the Red Planet. 

Cesium Mars comprises precise terrain captured by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), paired with colorized imagery. Cesium Mars is provided as 3D Tiles, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) community standard created by Cesium. 

Cesium Mars is a 3D Tileset to enable developers, researchers, and mission planners to create visualizations and simulations of the Red Planet. 

Cesium Mars

Enabling a digital ecosystem for planetary data 

A wealth of Mars data has already been captured by orbital and rover missions. The seven man-made satellites from five space agencies currently orbiting Mars and the two active rovers on Mars, NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance, send home more data every day through the Mars Relay Network. In addition, two space agencies are actively planning manned missions to Mars, and several additional agencies are planning for continued robotic exploration and orbital analysis. Cesium Mars lowers the barrier to entry for studying existing and new Mars data and for leveraging this ever-increasing data as part of the planning, execution, and analysis for Mars programs. A precise, easily accessed model of Mars supports the space community in its efforts toward an open, interoperable platform for a digital ecosystem supporting data captured beyond Earth.  

Mars viewed from space. Data for Cesium Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) on the NASA Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the ESA Mars Express. 

The Gale Crater, visualized with Cesium Mars.  

Cesium Mars draped with a Mars MOLA elevation map from NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio. 

The launch of Cesium Mars comes at the right time when there's a need for planetary-scale digital twins and simulation for the next leap in human and robotic spaceflight. Buendea intends to leverage Cesium Mars within NASA’s XR Operations Support System (XOSS) to expand our digital twin environments beyond the Moon and into Mars. By combining Cesium’s geospatial platform with our high-fidelity interactive environments in Unreal Engine, we are creating a foundation for next-generation mission planning, astronaut training, and real-time operations in support of these efforts.  

Cesium Moon in XOSS in VR mode. Courtesy Buendea and NASA’s Advanced Operations Concepts Lab.

Since Cesium Moon’s release, the dataset has become a foundation for digital twins for mission planning, for training simulators, and for games. We anticipate similar uses for Cesium Mars. 

Space architects designing for the Moon and Mars are already employing workflows like those used for infrastructure on Earth. Cesium Mars enables those processes to converge, as users leverage functionality available for our open source runtime engines. Use Cesium Mars as a base layer to place models of habitats, vehicles, or rovers on the Martian surface. If you have your own high-resolution terrain data, clip and inset it so your projects can live within a single continuous 3D surface rather than multiple separate project areas. Share realistic, interactive 3D design visualizations with large, dispersed teams to facilitate review, highlight design alternatives, and present designs as they change over time. 

NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars, viewed with Cesium for Unreal in Unreal Engine.

Cesium Mars is provided as 3D Tiles using the IAU_2015:49901 CRS and is composed of the ⁠Mars Viking Colorized Global Mosaic 232m imagery and ⁠Mars MGS MOLA - MEX HRSC Blended DEM Global 200m for terrain, along with higher resolution data for the Jezero and Gale craters. Cesium’s visualization engines—CesiumJS, Cesium for Unreal, Cesium for Unity, and Cesium for Omniverse—are ready for you to start building with Cesium Mars using an accurate representation of the planetary ellipsoid for measurement and analysis. Cesium Mars is available via Cesium ion SaaS and Cesium ion Self-Hosted.

This CesiumJS Sandcastle provides an example of how to include Cesium Mars in a web app. A sample level in Cesium for Unreal provides an example for how to get started with development using Cesium Mars in Unreal Engine. 

As lunar and interplanetary missions proceed, the need for an open, interoperable, standards-based platform to support simulation, planning, and analysis has never been greater. Cesium Mars, along with Cesium Moon, is a step toward this vision, offering a precise and scalable foundation. 

To access Cesium Mars, sign up or sign in to Cesium ion, locate the asset in the Cesium ion Asset Depot, and add the tileset to your Asset Library. Then start building! Create Cesium Stories, incorporate the data into a CesiumJS web app, or build advanced visualizations with 3D creation engines such as Unreal Engine. 

Hobu, Inc., with its deep roots in open-source geospatial, has led the contributions of standards and tools such as PROJJSON, ASPRS LAS, Cloud Optimized Point Cloud (COPC), and the Point Data Abstraction Library (PDAL). To enable Hobu’s users to visualize and interact with massive point clouds and raster data, the company developed its browser-based Eptium viewer using CesiumJS.

Eptium builds upon CesiumJS to allow users to directly visualize and interact with COPC and Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF in the browser in 3D. Supporting these archive and transmission formats reduces data duplication and conveniently enables visualization of commonly available cloud content. Eptium makes city- or country-scale point cloud datasets accessible for visualization and analysis on the web, especially for disadvantaged users. Streamlined access to massive cloud-based datasets enables interactivity and understanding for a broad audience, including those in the field or students and professionals using devices without high-end graphics capabilities.

Eptium users can perform multipoint observer line-of-sight (LOS) analysis, generate viewsheds, and export GeoTIFF or SVG images directly from the browser without the need for specialized desktop software. They are able to collaborate by saving and sharing application view state as links. Customers use Eptium as a complete web application, build with it as a JavaScript developer bundle, or directly use it for free by visiting eptium.com and pointing at their own data.

Point cloud and viewshed of Montreal, Canada, in Eptium. Courtesy Hobu.

Distribution of point clouds as COPC eliminates the need for extensive preprocessing or local storage of large files. Eptium consumes COPC data on the fly, converting it into 3D Tiles in-browser for efficient streaming. Eptium optionally uses Cesium World Terrain via Cesium ion and Bing Maps Aerial imagery for additional geospatial context. For a comprehensive picture of areas of interest, this data is fused in CesiumJS, which was built for interactive web apps and scaling for massive datasets.

Eptium, COPC, and CesiumJS also power the moonlidar.com application that Hobu's Connor Manning created in support of NASA’s recomputation of the Moon’s elevation.

The Hobu team uses CesiumJS for moonlidar.com. Courtesy Hobu.

By combining Hobu's expertise with CesiumJS, the Hobu team empowers geospatial users by making complex 3D data accessible and actionable.

Learn to build your own CesiumJS app for 3D geospatial visualization and analysis on the web by following our tutorials.

Hobu's Eptium Visualizes Country-Scale Point Clouds with CesiumJS

With Ansys Systems Tool Kit (STK), engineers model land, sea, air, and space scenarios to understand the relationships among vehicles, payloads, facilities, and environments, including terrain. Ansys Geospatial Data Cloud (GDC) integrates Cesium ion Self-Hosted and global 3D content to provide STK with out-of-the-box access to accurate geospatial context within its time-dynamic simulations.

UAV over Boston in Ansys STK, with Geospatial Data Cloud using Cesium ion Self-Hosted. Courtesy Ansys.

STK was released in 1989 to serve US and allied aerospace and defense organizations, and GDC will be available to STK users in July 2025. Users may create virtual worlds including buildings, terrain, and other physical structures. Subsequently, an infinite number of simulation configurations may be exercised, resulting in a significant reduction in the dependence on physical prototypes.

Using Cesium, GDC will replace Ansys’ Geospatial Content Server, removing the need to develop and maintain their own real-world data, tilers, and hosting solution.

“Being able to use Cesium ion Self-Hosted has saved a significant number of man hours that can be redirected towards additional ways to take advantage of the unprecedented access to data. We estimate the time savings to be the equivalent of half a full-time employee,” the Ansys team noted.  

Cesium has helped Ansys enhance mission modeling since 2011.

Communication signal to noise over Boston in Ansys STK, with Geospatial Data Cloud using Cesium ion Self Hosted. Courtesy Ansys.

Cesium ion Self-Hosted provides hosting, tiling, and streaming for massive heterogeneous 3D geospatial datasets in users’ own clouds, data centers, or edge devices, enabling air-gapped solutions that meet strict security requirements and can be deployed to remote, disconnected environments.

GDC accesses Cesium World Terrain, Cesium World Bathymetry, Cesium OSM Buildings, Japan 3D Buildings and Terrain, and Cesium Moon Terrain via Cesium ion Self-Hosted. Accurate elevation data, depth data, and per-building metadata support planning and analysis in critical simulations. Cesium OSM Buildings are streamed as 3D Tiles in conjunction with Cesium World Terrain or Cesium World Bathymetry. Users can add their own datasets to be tiled into 3D Tiles for optimal streaming and visualization in STK.

UAV flying low over Boston in Ansys STK, with Geospatial Data Cloud using Cesium ion Self-Hosted.

Real-world data enables clearer pictures for analysis and decisions in complex multidomain scenarios.

Create and host 3D content in your own environment with Cesium ion Self-Hosted, and visit Ansys in the Cesium booth at GEOINT Symposium, #2231, to see Geospatial Data Cloud in action.

Hear from Ansys at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference. Register to join us in Philadelphia in June.

Ansys Uses Cesium ion Self-Hosted for Geospatial Data Cloud

Our third installment highlights two more tracks at the 2025 Cesium Developer Conference: community-contributed aerospace and defense topics and sessions on Cesium, iTwin, OGC 3D Tiles, and other open technologies compiled by the teams at Cesium and Bentley Systems who work on them.

With Cesium’s roots in aerospace and commitment to interoperability and rapid innovation for tackling the hardest problems in 3D geospatial, we were excited to receive a group of full and lightning talk submissions focused on space, the Moon, flight systems, and mission-critical visualization and analysis.

To provide the community with a closer look into the advancements happening with Cesium and 3D Tiles, we decided to group a set of talks from the Platform team in Bentley Systems. The Platform team comprises development teams from Cesium, iTwin, and iTwin Capture, bringing together global geospatial, cloud-based-BIM (building information modeling), and reality capture.

Register for the Cesium Developer Conference

Calculating access to communications satellites in DigitalArsenal's OrbPro. Courtesy DigitalArsenal.

In today’s complex geopolitical environment, we’re seeing expanded interest in access to open geospatial technologies. Recent investments in the space industry have created satellite constellations with thousands of new spacecraft in just the last few years, and we’re hearing from developers who want to implement full global geospatial 3D experiences for training, planning, operations, and analysis.

These trends are reflected in the talk submissions we grouped in the Aerospace and Defense track, including:

Kayhan Space Investigates Satellite Intelligence for CNN with CesiumJS

Blacknight Space’s Event Horizon Showcases Mission Plans and Milestones with CesiumJS

Cesiumで可視化する軌道上AIと衛星ネットワーク ―― NTTが探る「宇宙データセンタ」アーキテクチャ

Orbit Codex Tracks Flight of Artemis II in CesiumJS

Lift Off to Cesium Mars

Hobu's Eptium Visualizes Country-Scale Point Clouds with CesiumJS

Ansys Uses Cesium ion Self-Hosted for Geospatial Data Cloud