CADIN

https://www.canva.com/design/DAErtSfjnBY/LgxFmCukCuOrnYSNgt2KEA/view?utm_content=DAErtSfjnBY&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton

http://cadinasa.co

The back-end was developed in Python. Our system fetches information from the space-track Two Line Element (TLE) database and filters only the known space debris orbiting earth for the past 7 days. From this information, we used an SPG4 Python library to calculate the position and velocity in the true equator mean equinox coordinate frame of each debris, given a specific Julian Date.

From this point, we transform this information into geodetic coordinates (with astropy python library), obtaining latitude, longitude and height at a certain time. After this process, all data is stored into an SQL-based database (sqlite) and made available to our server.

We planned on retrieving data from space-track once every one or two days, to update our database with the latest information about every debris, and then calculating its position via the SGP4 propagator on a much higher rate (ten to twenty times a second). With this, we can animate the visualization tool to display the movement of the celestial bodies.

What is more, we planned on calculating the orbit of each debris using the propagator, and then comparing the orbits to calculate the likelihood of a collision (using the information of how uncertain the SGP4 propagation gets the further it propagates), and when it is likely to happen.

The front-end has two important parts. The first one is based on Node.js and it displays the earth with the debris orbiting. The second feature is the website where multiple pieces of information are shown in specific categories. To display the debris orbiting Earth, Nasa’s World Wind API was chosen due to an easier implementation and better looks.

The bridge between back-end and front-end was done using Flask and json, but at the moment it is necessary to optimize the data exchange between the two ends, as for now it is only possible to show a handful of debris on the 3D map without memory overflow.

Both back and front-end were hosted on cloud via Heroku. In addition, a website was created in order to make information more accessible, with the creation of pieces of text summarizing the process of obtaining and treating space data, and how they impact our lives.

We used data from Space Track to create our software, and we also used Celestrak as inspiration to reach our goals of creating a real-time visualization tool. What is more, we used Nasa’s World Wind API to develop our 3D interactive globe

With the Space Apps experience we were able to discover more about what space trash is, and how impactful they can be on our future. During this journey, we realized how little we knew about space debries, which encouraged us to facilitate the understanding of it. This led our approach to the project, which was to first understand the technologies involved into acquiring data and treating data, and using them to make a instructive and user-friendly platform for every user.

We were challenged by the complexity of the information about space (coordinate systems, time frames and data), but this only inspired us more to reach our goal of making this type of information easily accessible and understandable.

What was also challenging was handling a big amount of data, as we had to reinvent our development to manage it.

https://space-track.org

https://celestrak.com

https://pypi.org/project/sgp4/

https://www.astropy.org

https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/2.0.x/

https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov

#Space #trash #debris #information #mapping #visualization

This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.