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CosmoArchitects - CosmicVue🌌

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Interactive Orrery Web App

Demo is Live on Netlify Demo .

Overview

This project is our submission for the 2024 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. It showcases an interactive orrery web app designed to visualize celestial bodies such as planets, Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) including Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), Near-Earth Comets (NECs), within our solar system.

The app features a dynamic, animated model that traces the orbital paths and positions of these celestial bodies over time, utilizing real-time data. Our goal is to educate users about these objects through an intuitive, 3D visualization tool supported by NASA's public datasets.

Event: 2024 NASA Space Apps Challenge

Categories: Astrophysics, Space Exploration, Software, Games, Planets & Moons

Difficulty Level: Intermediate to Advanced.

Features

  • Interactive 3D Visualization: View the solar system in an interactive manner with the ability to zoom, pan, and rotate.
  • NASA's Celestial Body Data: Visualize the position of planets, NECs, NEAs, and PHAs using NASA's Keplerian parameters.
  • Orbital Trajectories: Explore the colored orbital trajectories of celestial bodies, with options to enable/disable specific orbits.
  • Speed & Timeline Control: Control the speed of the simulation to observe the solar system at different speeds.
  • Labels and Views: Toggle labels for celestial objects (NEOs).

Technologies Used

  • 3D Graphics: Built using open-source 3D graphics library Three.js.
  • NASA Data Integration: Celestial body data retrieved from NASA’s Small Body Database and other public datasets/APIs.
  • Orbital Propagator: Implemented to calculate real-time movement of celestial bodies in the dynamic orrery.
  • Web Application: Developed as a web-based application, ensuring accessibility across multiple browsers (tested on Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and devices.

Installation and Setup

To run the project locally:

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/KhamessiTaha/CosmoArchitects.git
cd CosmoArchitects

  2. Install the required dependencies:

    npm install

  3. Run the development server:

    npm run start

  4. Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:3000.

Data Sources and Resources

  • NASA’s Small Body Database: Used for retrieving Keplerian parameters and orbital data for NECs, NEAs, and PHAs.
  • Keplerian Parameters Tutorial: Followed the guidelines for using eccentricity, semi-major axis, inclination, argument of periapsis, true anomaly, and more to calculate elliptical orbits.
  • Additional NASA APIs: NASA's Horizon API/NASA's Open API Used for planet position data and additional celestial information.

Objectives

The main objectives for this project are:

  • Interactive Education: Provide a visual and interactive platform for users to learn about the solar system and its celestial bodies.
  • Real-time Orbit Visualization: Accurately represent the position of celestial objects at any given time.
  • User Engagement: Enable users to explore and manipulate the visualization by controlling time, speed, and the point of view in the orrery.

How to Use the Web App

  1. Navigation: Use mouse controls or touch gestures to pan, zoom, and rotate around the solar system.
  2. Control Panel: Utilize the control panel to switch between labels, toggle orbital paths, and control the simulation speed.
  3. Time Travel: Click the 'Faster' or 'Slower' buttons to observe the celestial movements at different speeds.
  4. Explore Near-Earth Objects: Use the object filter to focus on Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) such as asteroids or comets.

Future Improvements

  • Enhanced AI Orbit Predictions: Further improve AI-generated orbits with more accurate long-term trajectory predictions.
  • Expanded Object Database: Include more detailed data for additional celestial bodies.
  • Mobile-Friendly UI: Optimize the web app for mobile devices to enhance accessibility.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you'd like to contribute, please fork the repository and submit a pull request. Make sure to follow the guidelines outlined in the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Acknowledgments

  • NASA: For the publicly available datasets and the resources that made this project possible.
  • Three.js: For the 3D graphics engine that powers the visualization.
  • AI Tools: Special thanks to AI tools used for code debugging :D.

License

This project is licensed under the LGPL-2.1 license - see the LICENSE file for details.

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