High-Level Project Summary
My project is a basic 3D ISS tracker written in Python. It displays the current position of the ISS, calculated from TLE data. It also calculates which ground stations have line of sight with the ISS, in order to determine connection availability.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
To get the position of the ISS, my code uses TLE data from CelesTrak. It then uses the SGP4 model to calculate the orbit of the ISS, and from that the current position. It is then displayed in 3d, using the Ursina game engine.
Space Agency Data
I used data from the USGS to get locations of active ground stations: https://landsat.usgs.gov/landsat/igs_maps/about_ground_stations/
I am not sure if this counts as Space Agency Data.
Hackathon Journey
I am currently trying to improve my maths and data science skills, so this challenge was extremely useful for me. I learned a lot from it, and I am looking forward to building on the project in my own time. It was quite challenging converting between coordinate systems (specifically between True Equator Mean Equinox positions and Ursina's XYZ). I was stuck on this for a very long time, so I only had about 6 hours to work on the main features.
References
https://landsat.usgs.gov/landsat/igs_maps/about_ground_stations/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2378/international-space-station-3d-model/
https://www.ursinaengine.org/
https://pypi.org/project/sgp4/
https://rhodesmill.org/skyfield/
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
https://celestrak.org/
Tags
#iss, #satellites, #tle, #spacestation, #orbits, #python, #sgp4