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Real-time visualisation of orbiting satellites
- thomasdd 11y agoI am amazed by the Nonoperational/Operational ratio.
- panzagl 11y agoIt takes a lot of fuel to deorbit something in a controlled manner.
- _lce0 11y agoAnybody knows what "nonoperational" means. Are those simply shutdown collecting space dust? Leaving aside if it's allowed/legal .. I wonder if it's possible to establish communication with a nonoperational satellite, and what tools are required to do so
- jastr 11y agoLast year a team of people crowdfunded, bought some radios off eBay, and took over a decommissioned NASA satelite. http://observer.com/2014/08/civilians-in-abandoned-mcdonalds-seize-control-of-wandering-space-satellite/ http://observer.com/2014/08/civilians-in-abandoned-mcdonalds...
- username223 11y agoThat's both cool and scary. Someone with a bit of money and a bit more malice could cause a lot of trouble by taking over a satellite: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome
- ProAm 11y agoMost of these are probably completely out of fuel so I wouldnt worry about this.
- mikeash 11y agoAnd even if it had fuel, making it collide with something will be tough. And even if you do that, it's happened before without going all Kessler, although that doesn't mean it can't happen the next time.
- unchocked 11y agoIf I learned anything but watching The Martian, it's that the law of the sea applies in space. So a nonoperational satellite would be subject to salvage rights?
- ulkesh 11y ago"Real-time" is a bit relative (wink) when it takes minutes to get the data into the browser.
- wrigby 11y agoThe locations are most likely calculated using orbit information published by NORAD and/or the spacecraft operators. This is called ephemeris data, and is usually published in a format called "two-line element," or TLE. A TLE contains a complete description of the spacecraft's orbit at a specific time, so you can then calculate where the spacecraft will be at any moment given that it stays in that orbit. See http://www.celestrak.com http://www.celestrak.com for a bunch more information on the subject. Of particular interest is the TLE format itself (http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.asp http://www.celestrak.com/NORAD/documentation/tle-fmt.asp).
- lloyd-christmas 11y agoIt's calculated using historical data (the most recent observation) using the Simplified General Perturbations model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_perturbations_models https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_perturbations_model... This is why it's a beast to run. It's looping through some hefty calculations for each satellite every second.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoHoly shit, we have a lot of junk out there. It seems like we're building a multi-layered defense shield against alien invasion - the outer band will damage the enemy staging their attack from the Moon, and the inner band shall make it impossible to keep their motherships in low-orbit for continued planetary assault.
- lordnacho 11y agoThere's only a few weather satellites. That surprises me. You'd think there was a lot of demand for something like that?
- mikeash 11y agoA single weather satellite can cover a huge chunk of the Earth. You don't need that many for complete coverage.
- not_that_noob 11y agoDoes it include military/spy satellites? If not, then there's likely even more satellites both operational and non up there. [Edit] Scanning the skies above Russia and China for satellites with a non-specified mission doesn't bring up a single US satellite. So it appears that this data does not include spy satellites.
- javiramos 11y agoCan someone explain why there are so many satellites in a cylindrical section far from the earth and not much in-between it and the earth?
- ianburrell 11y agoThat is geostationary orbit. The active satellites are in circle along the equator while the inactive ones are in wider band outside of geostationary orbit.
- bluehawk 11y agoI'm curious, at what appears to be GEO (Geostationary Earth Orbit) there is a ring of green "operational" satellites that align with the equator, then there is a "belt" of non-operational satellites that seem to have spread out from them. 1. Is this because the non-operational ones can no longer station keep and slowly spread out? 2. Why are they in a belt shape? 3. Why is the belt not centered on the green ring? They seem to be all "moving" in the same direction? (When I looked at it, their orbits tend to "dip" south while above the western hemisphere and north while above eastern hemisphere)
- Florin_Andrei 11y agoThe belt shape is an aggregate. Each individual orbit's plane must contain the Earth's center. So the "belt" is an aggregate of many orbits at various inclinations relative to the equator.
- ianburrell 11y agoGeostationary satellites are boosted into a graveyard orbit at the end of their lives.
- lloyd-christmas 11y agoI believe it's due to the point of ascension changing. With the earth tilting at 23.5 degrees, a GEO orbit also has to be at that angle relative to the sun. Once they are no longer operational, they will stay at that 23.5 degree angle, but the point of ascension will drift as the altitude (and therefore the orbital period) changes.
- ben174 11y agoIf you click the 'X' next to ComSpOC - removing the filter - there are a TON more satellites. What is that filter and what are all the additional satellites?
- lloyd-christmas 11y agoIt's their company's tracking repository, which is an alternative to the Joint Space Operations Center's (JSPOC) repository.
- joezydeco 11y agoWho remembers NASA's J-Track?