Awards & Nominations
Key Spammrs has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Global Nominee
stars align
High-Level Project Summary
We created an open-source debris and satellite tracking system with projected orbitals and object coordinates as well as a location and debris filtering function. All this is done in 3D with an interactive user experience. Our solution provides a method to find space debris above a certain location, which is beneficial for predicting an optimal time to launch spacecrafts.
Link to Project "Demo"
Link to Final Project
Detailed Project Description
Our tracking system is composed of data of 20,000 points (debris and satellites), constantly being updated in real time.
We used 3d models from Cesium to visualize these data points around Earth as well as their orbits. In our 3D model, the user can click on the trash (represented as dots) to find information about that object- from their name and NORAD id to their orbital path. With an added functionality of filtering space trash, the user can visualize only a specific type of trash. Additionally, the user can drag a slider back and forth to see how the debris moves around Earth as a function of time.
While "stars align" is well-suited for a professional, but for an every-day person, these points, satellites are almost meaningless. So in order to make space debris more approachable, we decided to create a fun little story/game that uses our model visualization! Here, you are an astronaut floating through space, and you are looking for the special space debris. Using your birthday and address, find your perfect space debris among the many space debris points shown on our real time model. See how your stars align with your destined debris.
We are also able to sort our data at a specified location creating an inverted cone above the location. Every debris in this cone is shown and all other debris is filtered out. This allows the user to easily visualize the data and see what debris is above a location.
Space Agency Data
We used Space Track for sourcing our TLE data at https://www.space-track.org/basicspacedata/query/class/gp/predicates/OBJECT_NAME,NORAD_CAT_ID,OBJECT_TYPE,PERIOD,INCLINATION,APOGEE,PERIGEE,ECCENTRICITY,MEAN_MOTION,SEMIMAJOR_AXIS,TLE_LINE1,TLE_LINE2/decay_date/null-val/epoch/%3Enow-30/orderby/norad_cat_id/format/json.
Hackathon Journey
Our space apps experience was filled with learning for everyone in our team. Our team hadn’t known how to work with html, css and front end at the start of the hackathon, but by the end, we were at the very least proficient in the baics: padding, positioning, margin.
Furthermore, we had to orient ourselves with the technical terms this challenge used, from TLEs, to CDMs and propagating. We spent a wild amount of time figuring out the math for calculating objects at a certain latitude/longitude.
There were a lot of difficulties in pinpointing orbits and figuring out front-end, added together with difficulties in pushing code- most of us had never worked in such a large group before.
However! We all learned a lot from challenging ourselves in this deceptively short 39 hours.
References
Space Track: https://www.space-track.org/
https://us-central1-stars-5145f.cloudfunctions.net/app/catalog2
https://www.space-track.org/basicspacedata/query/class/gp/predicates/OBJECT_NAME,NORAD_CAT_ID,OBJECT_TYPE,PERIOD,INCLINATION,APOGEE,PERIGEE,ECCENTRICITY,MEAN_MOTION,SEMIMAJOR_AXIS,TLE_LINE1,TLE_LINE2/decay_date/null-val/epoch/%3Enow-30/orderby/norad_cat_id/format/json
https://cesium.com/
Github Repo: https://github.com/ColdPotatoes/Stars-Align
Tags
#storyline, #data visualization, #artistic, #creative, #dream
Global Judging
This project has been submitted for consideration during the Judging process.