Awards & Nominations
BUET Zenith has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Global Nominee
Trash Track
High-Level Project Summary
We have developed an android app that gathers data from different open-source data providers, plots the data in 2D and 3D view. A user can know the exact location of space debris very easily from these views. In this way, small satellites can be kept safe from known space debris. With our risk analysis graph, one can easily know the best time for an upcoming rocket launch avoiding space trash. All these features, not only available for the current time, date and location but also in any location and time in the past or future. Our app can locate dense debris to provide a better avoidance maneuver which in term will save 5-10% of total mission cost that is hundreds of millions of dollars.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Project Motivation
Imagine if a rocket launched from earth had to change its direction and motion again and again just because there is too much junk in the orbital area. Imagine us not being able to see our moon due to the debris.
With the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 mankind entered the space age. And now we are not too far away from interplanetary voyages. But as we launch more and more missions to space we also increase the amount of trash. And with time we are putting so much debris in space that we may confine ourselves to dangers that would make to get past our own garbage.
As of 2019, there is more than 500 million debris of different sizes. And the number increases as we speak. And many of them pose severe threats not only to space travel but also to people on earth. Collisions with debris larger than 1 cm would disable an operational spacecraft and may cause the explosion of a decommissioned spacecraft or rocket body. Millimetre-size debris may cause local damage or disable a subsystem of an operational spacecraft. Large space debris objects, such as abandoned satellites or rocket bodies reenters the atmosphere with an average of 1 per day can reach Earth’s surface, creating risk to the population on the ground.
In 2009 Iridium 33 was destroyed due to a collision with a non-functioning satellite Kosmos 2251. And now we have more than 50% chance of impact from different kinds of trash that we have left in the orbits. And every impact between objects will generate a cascade effect where each one will increase the chance of collision and thus create more trash.
So, we are providing a solution to map the trash in real-time to provide a better understanding of them and for a better avoidance maneuver.
Methodology
Our android app collects orbital parameters for each currently tracked debris object in Earth orbit from Celestrack and Spacetrack API. After that, we calculated the geographical position i.e latitude, longitude, altitude using and TLE prediction library which is implemented using Simplified General Perturbations 4(SGP4) multiplatform implementation.
After calculating the geographical position of each debris object we visualized them in 2d map using google maps android SDK and also in 3d virtual globe using Nasa whirlwind Android SDK.
Features
Debris Catalog:We made a catalog of currently tracked debris orbiting around the Earth by collected data from Celestrack and Spacetrack API and their information from the Nasa website, Wikipedia, and other reliable sources.
3D virtual globe: We visualized the current location of each tracked debris object in a 3D virtual globe using Nasa whirlwind API. This 3d virtual globe representation of debris will provide the use clear idea of the geographical location of the debris object. Users can also see the orbital environment at different points in time. All debris objects update their location in real-time.
2D Google Maps: As we use Google Maps almost every day, we also visualized the debris in 2d google maps which increases user experience. Users can track individual debris in this 2d map view by clicking them in real-time. Users can also see the orbital environment at different points in time in 2d map view too.
Risk analysis: We analyze the risk of a user-defined orbital location i.e user-defined latitude, longitude, altitude for a period of time that is also defined by the user. After taking the input from the user we calculate the number of debris passes through the user-defined orbital location and plot them in a line chart with respect to timer interval in hours.
Impact
About 5-10% of a mission cost is due to space trash which accounts for about hundreds of millions of dollars. Our project will put an impact on space travel and provide necessary insights to tackle major issues that can be caused by space trash. Small magnitude satellites can use our solution to predict unfortunate collisions. Moreover, the knowledge of the accurate coordinates of space debris will help us select the right path to launch and place new satellites to orbit avoiding any collision.
Project Tools
- Android Studio
- Lucid chart
- Powerpoints
- Camtasia Studio
- Adobe Photoshop
Coding Language
- Android -Java
Project Dependency
Space Agency Data
- Nasa world wind.
- Celestrack debris TLE data.
- Space track API.
Hackathon Journey
We are team BUET Zenith from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. This is our second time participating in Nasa Space Apps Challenge. Like last year, this time we participated in the online hackathon and we finished our project by collaborating online.
References
Tags
#space #debris #trash #satellite #rocket #android #map #NasaWorldWind #Celestrack #SpaceTrack
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.