This weekend I took part in this years NASA Space Apps Challenge.
For those unfamiliar with it, I suggest you check it out as it is one of the largest annual online hackathons in the world.
NASA set out 28 different challenges for entrants covering all manner of earth and space science topics.
The challenge I decided to tackle was called Mapping Space Trash In Real Time. I took one of the datasets they were providing Celestrak and plotted over 5,000 items orbiting the earth in Augmented Reality.
My first stumbling block was realising that whilst orbit height of items was shown in a datatable, the underlying data in csv format did not include height so needed to be calculated from the other available variables. I also needed to break out my Trigonometry to work out the X & Y coordinates of an item around a circular orbit using the right ascension angle (or so I thought).
After plotting the positions of the items in orbits, I set to work adding additional functionality including
- Tap item to show more information
- Add a circle (very thin torus) to denote the items orbit path
- Speed up/down buttons
- Zoom in/out with pinching gesture
- Rotating everything with pinching gesture
- Double tap screen to hide/show UI buttons
My main regret from the project was not using the correct method for determining satellite position. I had incorrectly assumed I could use inclination and right ascension to calculate an items position but was incorrect. If I were to fix my mistake I would use an off the purpose built satellite code library.
My 30 second project submission video can be seen here.
While a 2 minute more detailed video can be seen here.
I have put the (questionable) code on GitHub. TBH. I've not even tidied it up yet.
Almost all of the techniques used in the project are detailed in my book .NET Developer's Guide to Augmented Reality in iOS and on my website XamarinArkit.com
I continue to believe that Hackathons are one of the best ways to scratch an itch or experiment with a new technology and learn something new.
If you haven't entered a hackathon before, I suggest you try it. And if you do, here are some Hackathon Tips.
-- Lee
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