Springboard to the Satellites| Orbital Sky
Awards & Nominations
Springboard to the Satellites has received the following awards and nominations. Way to go!
Orbital Sky
What's Up, Spock
Summary
What's Up, Spock allows users to generate a list of satellites in their field of vision overhead. They can then click on a satellite name to learn more about the satellite. Also included is a space for the latest in satellite news.
How We Addressed This Challenge
The What's Up, Spock team created an app to increase public engagement and interest in the satellites orbiting above our neighborhoods. The whole team was shocked to learn the incredible number and variety of satellites hovering over our heads. To demystify these modern wonders, we provide our users with the most up to date information about the satellites in their locale.
All a user has to do is press one button, and they will instantly be served detailed information about nearby satellites. Also provided are links to the most recent satellite news stories to further engage burgeoning rocket scientists.
How We Developed This Project
The team chose this challenge to satisfy their own curiosities. We wanted to answer the question, "What are the satellites orbiting our homes doing?" This challenge provided us the opportunity to build a tool answering that question.
The project started with the data. All team members scoured the web searching for API's to provide our users with the freshest data. From there, the backend was structured out while the frontend was wireframed. Thumbs up were given and the team members got to work.
The team used a Flask backend, with SQLAlchemy functioning as the ORM. The frontend is composed of Javascript, HTML, and CSS.
Some issues arose during the build included adjusting and manipulating JSON response data to match rows stored in the team database.
How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project
The team made great use of NASA's WorldWind earth mapping service. It provided us with an accurate and highly detailed model of the planet for us to plot our satellite points on.
Project Demo
You can view the video of our project demo here: https://youtu.be/ZL9mvIPuqts
Project Code
Data & Resources
https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
https://www.n2yo.com/
https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database
https://www.wikipedia.org/