High-Level Project Summary
Our project aims to locate, display and inform about the many space debris orbiting the Earth, therefore helping future space missions by providing live information. With the help of a very user friendly UI, we also aim to get the attention of people and raise awareness about the topic of space pollution.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
SpaQui Web
SpaQui Web (Derived from Spatium Quisquiliae which is Latin for space trash) is designed to make space missions easier. In other words, it is a precaution so that space debris do not adversely affect space missions. Apart from making official space missions easier and safer, we also aimed to raise public awareness about space pollution. Because, just as it is important to reduce the garbage on the earth, it is just as important to protect the environment outside the atmosphere, perhaps the area where we will continue our lives in the future. That's why we developed our project in a way that lets anyone reach and observe the space debris in the Earth's atmosphere.
Space Debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) is defunct artificial objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function [1]. In space, even the smallest objects can get up to incredible speeds. So, every junk left in space may become a threat for future space missions. Next graph shows the increase of space debris over the years [2].
As shown in this graph, with the increasing number of space missions, the number of space debris have also increased over the years.
Classification of space debris (that are bigger than 1 mm) according to their altitude and spatial density [3].
What are TLE sets?
A two-line element set (TLE) is a data format encoding a list of orbital elements of an Earth-orbiting object for a given point in time, the epoch. Using a suitable prediction formula, the state(position and velocity) at any point in the past or future can be estimated to some accuracy [4]. We are able to calculate vital information(location, velocity, etc.) about individual satellites using these two line sets. In our app, we collected this data from CelesTrak databases [5].
Programming Languages We Used
In our project, we mainly used JavaScript and HTML since these languages are at the top when it comes to programming web apps. We used two JavaScript libraries called CesiumJS [6] and SatelliteJS. A 3D map of the Earth was coded using CesiumJS. Then, we used SatelliteJS to calculate debris' longtitude, latitude, altitude, velocity and path.
An example screenshot that we took in the early stages of development.
We will be able to add more debris to our map, using the same method.
Getting Data from Individual Space Debris
Using the same library, we could also collect individual debris' longtitude, latitude and altitude.
![[3]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Spacedebris_small.png/220px-Spacedebris_small.png){kind=link}
Location of the ISS on our console as an example.
How Does SpaQui Web Solve The Problem?
Our main goal is to map every known space debris orbiting the Earth, in real time. So, we plan to use the methods we mentioned to get every known and currently-tracked space debris, then locate and track their paths on our web app. We're also planning to add a feature that allows users to select and track individual objects orbiting the Earth, see their path and collect information like longtitude, altitude, velocity, etc.
Project Introduction Video
Project Code
https://github.com/ibrahimcopur1/SpaQui-Web
Areas We Couldn't Cover
Although most of the space debris orbiting the Earth are located and tracked, there are still many small space debris orbiting the Earth. They may be small but they can still get up to really high velocities and create big problems for future space missions but since they are to small to be tracked, our web app is not able to show it on the map.
Space Agency Data
All of the information provided by NASA was very helpful and inspiring. Also, the resources section really was a life-saver. Various articles from:
NASA (Space Debris and Human Spacecraft, NASA ARES)
ESA (Space Environment Report 2021)
Apart from these, methods and libraries that were recommended by NASA (SatelliteJS, NASA WebWorldWind, etc.) were really helpful as well.
Hackathon Journey
It was an event that we were proud to attend as a team. We didn't know there was so much debris/junk in space. While working on our project, we realized how serious the dangers of space trash were.We have a team that is interested in space and astronomy and we developed this project because we wanted to make space missions safer, which is why we chose this challenge. By doing research and consulting with authorized people, we overcame the obstacles in this project and we were able to do our project as we wanted. We would like to thank NASA for letting us compete in sucn an amazing event, TED Çorum College and TED Mersin College for guiding and helping us in this project.
References
Resources We Used:
ARES ODQN for extra information and latest news. ARES ODQN Website
JAXA's articles, news and researches about the topic. JAXA' s Debris Research
[1]-Wikipedia's definiton of space debris. Full Article
[2]-Graphs about the topic by Wikipedia. URL
[4]-What are Two-Line Element Sets. Full Article
[5]-CelesTrak/NORAD TLE Database. https://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/
[6]-CesiumJS Website. https://cesium.com/platform/cesiumjs/
Tags
#space #earth #trash #html #css #javascript #nasa #spacemissions #website #humankind #spacetrash
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.