High-Level Project Summary
We have developed a three-dimensional ISS (International Space Station) tracking web application, which displays a third-person view of the ISS. We also implemented a display that shows the distance from the station, its location on a 2D map of the globe, the view of the earth from the ISS, current coordinates, altitude and velocity of the ISS. Our project solves the lack of an all-in-one ISS web tracker; it contains the features of many other websites all in one place, thus making it much easier to accurately track the movement of the ISS for the average space enthusiast.
Link to Final Project
Link to Project "Demo"
Detailed Project Description
Our app tracks the International Space Station, showing its current coordinates, altitude and velocity. It allows the user to look from ISS point of view, as well as to look at its location in a topographical map. It works by getting data from a web service "Where the ISS at?", which converts TLE data to ISS coordinates, altitude and velocity. Our tracker visualizes it in a 3-dimensional model of space and on a 2-dimensional map of the earth. It allows people to easily know if the ISS is flying over their heads and lets them visualize it better: how high it’s flying and how little it is compared to the Earth. For this app we used the game engine “Godot”, which utilizes the GDscript programming language.
Space Agency Data
In our project we used an unrestricted web service from the developer Bill Shupp that tracks the location of the International Space Station (ISS) in real-time called “Where the ISS At”, which converts TLE data to ISS coordinates, altitude and velocity.
Hackathon Journey
Overall, our Space Apps experience was great. During the hackathon we learnt a lot about project planning, orbit data, how to process it, how to use the Godot game engine and understood that when working on a time-limit, it is important not to over-complicate certain things, but rather check for easier solutions. Our approach to the project changed throughout the hackathon. In the beginning we had set really big goals, but because of a few setbacks we had to settle down a little and stick to a simpler version of our project. One of the setbacks was our team member getting sick, but we resolved it by splitting the tasks and communicating partially through Discord. Another challenge we had was not being able to access our data for a while because of a laptop malfunction, but luckily, we managed to fix it. At the end of the hackathon, we’d really like to thank the organisers of the event for a really warm environment and taking care of the participants, and we’d like to thank our team for dedicating their weekend for this cause!
References
Data used:
- Web service “Where the ISS at?”: https://api.wheretheiss.at/v1/satellites/25544
Resources:
- International Space Station 3D Model: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2378/international-space-station-3d-model/
- Earth 3D Model: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2393/earth-3d-model/
- Earth day map: https://www.solarsystemscope.com/textures/download/2k_earth_daymap.jpg
Tools used:
- Godot game engine: https://godotengine.org/
Tags
#ISS #tracker #3D #2D #space #tracking #godot #gdscript #map #tool #webapp #website