Refused Warriors

Colombo | Mapping Space Trash in Real Time

Mapping Space Trash in Real Time

High-Level Project Summary

What did you develop?Application software to map space debris and satellites LEO.How does it solve the challenge?By tracking the debris and the satellites we can predict possible future collisions. The collisions which may occur between debris and on the contrary the collisions that could occur between the satellites and debris. By predicting future collisions we can initiate suitable projects or carry out preventive measures to avoid these collisions and minimize the damage that may occur due to these collisions.Why is it Important?Many modern services rely on the information traced down from the satellites that are orbiting on LEO. So, it is important to keep the LEO clean.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pWPWgKnllwIarvysxLZNF1wV9IKrfOkk/view?usp=sharing

Link to Final Project

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Al75rnBprzB9LILYVeBiX1cv4niCNOcg?usp=sharing

Detailed Project Description

What exactly does it do?

Mapping, tracking and predicting(to be implemented) space trash and satellites in real time, to detect collisions.

How does it Work?

It gets real-time orbital parameters and locates the objects in the library. Using a library like SatelliteJS we can get the location of each object at a given time. By updating the time we can predict possible collisions and get their location. Our concept is to have a satellite with a robot arm that can collect tracked debris into a sack and take them back to the graveyards or bring them to lower altitudes where it will eventually burn up without causing any effect to earth atmosphere. Also, we can create an anti-gravity area around the debris and change its orbit and send them to a faraway position from our LEO.

What benefit does it have?

By tracking the debris and the satellites we can predict possible future collisions. The collisions which may occur between debris and on the contrary the collisions that could occur between the satellites and debris. By predicting future collisions we can initiate suitable projects or carry out preventive measures to avoid these collisions and minimize the damage that may occur due to these collisions.

What do we hope to achieve?

We hope to minimize any collision that would occur between debris and/or the satellites. Nonetheless, we also hope that our measures could minimize the formation of debris clouds and new debris resulting from collisions.

Also, we intend to collect existing trash with the aid of maps and strive for a clear LEO.

What tools, coding languages, hardware, or software did you use to develop your project?

HTML
PHP
Javascript

We additionally used open-source libraries:

danfo-js
NASA Worldwind
Satellite JS

Visual Studio Code Community edition to write the code :).

Space Agency Data

Satellite Names and Locations:

https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/iridium-33-debris.txt

https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/active.txt

Hackathon Journey

How would you describe your space App experience?

We had no prior experience in the field. We developed the software right from scratch and we managed to learn everything that was needed along our journey. We can say that we went from nothing to everything. Learning all of such things has now become our passion.

From the beginning of this space app journey, our team “Refused Warriors” was able to overcome such challenges like the knowledge gap always through teamwork and dedication.

What did you learn?

We learned everything from hard skills to soft skills including open-source API’s, web development, teamwork, presentation skills and much more.

What inspired your team to choose this challenge?

The curiosity we had about space, space explorations and new inventions became our inspiration. We were always inspired by new space journeys, space ships and new developments in the field. It is that passion to learn new things that prompted us to test and apply what we know in the field.

What was your approach to developing this project?

Despite the fact of being very fascinated and thrilled of the idea of developing a unique software we were also short of the knowledge that was required. I have no words to explain how curious and how excited we were at the beginning of our journey. According to my conscience, it is also this curiosity we had about satellites and space stations that moved us in the right direction to develop this software. Our excitement became the driving force behind all the success we have achieved so far. Initially, we were simply researching new facts and figures about the satellites and space stations and eventually we came to know of the debris issue. We understood how much of an impact it has created on the space industry with the tons of debris being collected every year. Collecting space debris became our new focus and our mission to be accomplished. We are space lovers we love every inch of it and the story of debris was alarming to us. We understood that addressing the issue of space debris should better be done very soon than any later. Extensive research carried on this subject helped us to identify the challenges and risks created due to the collection of debris. Nevertheless, we understood the need to address this problem at hand and do something to save space. As our next step, we arranged a few meetings to discuss this matter and suddenly we came up with the idea of developing software that could map space debris and also somehow collect them in a proper manner. However, we are still unaware of the challenges we might face in future. We have the passion-driven by hope to collect debris as much as we can. It is so inspiring sometimes to think of how far we’ve come by putting ourselves in areas we are not at all good at. The eagerness to create the software also prompted us to learn things like web development, This has now become a part of our routines to fix each and every problem that comes a long way in developing this software.

How did your team resolve setbacks and challenges?

The knowledge gap, having no access to library facilities, having no access to laboratories, equipment and mostly the time needed to develop the software between our busy schedules.

Is there anyone you'd like to thank and why?

Our heartfelt gratitude goes to NASA for organizing this competition on behalf of all the space lovers. Nonetheless, we are also very much grateful to the ‘SEDS’ Sri Lanka organizing committee of the Colombo division, to all our mentors and colleagues for all the support thus, rendered. Thanks to everyone who committed all their study time to make this project a success.