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Every Satellite Tracked In Realtime Via Google Earth
Matt Amato writes "With the recent discussion of the ISS having to dodge some space junk, many people's attention has once again focused on the amount of stuff in orbit around our planet. What many people don't know is that USSTRATCOM tracks and publishes a list of over 13,000 objects that they currently monitor, including active/retired satellites and debris. This data is meaningless to most people, but thanks to Analytical Graphics, it has now been made accessible free of charge to anyone with a copy of Google Earth. By grabbing the KMZ, you can not only view all objects tracked in real-time, but you can also click on them to get more information on the specific satellite, including viewing its orbit trajectory. It's an excellent educational tool for the space-curious. Disclaimer: I not only work for Analytical Graphics, but I'm the one that wrote this tool as a demo."
The title says "every", the summary says 13,000 objects. Is this really complete, or are there objects that are not tracked (or at least not disclosed)?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
From what I hear, it's a pretty nice company to work for. Too nice in fact. The guy who was my Best Man at my wedding works there. You guys really need to let him out more. He likes it too much, and his family and friends miss him.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
According to the Wikipedia article on Keyhole Markup Language, the following apps can read and understand it:
* ArcGIS Explorer .NET and Java
* Feature Manipulation Engine (FME)
* Flickr
* Google Earth
* Google Maps
* Google Mobile
* Live Search Maps
* Microsoft Virtual Earth
* Map My Ancestors
* Mapufacture
* Marble (KDE)
* OpenLayers
* Platial
* RouteBuddy for Mac
* WikiMapia
* World Wind
* Yahoo Pipes
* SuperMap iServer (SuperMap IS)
* OpenLAPI, an LGPL implementation of the Location API for Java ME
So, for those of you who don't have, or don't want to use, or can't use Google Earth, there are plenty of other options available.
But yes, it's pretty cool what you can do hey.
I wank in the shower.
It seems like every couple months, Google Earth gains another feature that's been working for months or years in the X Planet program. Day/Night artwork, Satellite ephemeris, etc. I'm still waiting for cloud layer updates and I don't think there's a solar or lunar locator on it yet. The interactive nature of Google Earth is nicer than the command-line static image output of X Planet. The author of X Planet had a private script that would take three 120-degree views of radar-measured cloud data from various weather services and stitch them into a single spherical projection to be used in the graphics. He'd update it every 3 hours or so, and host the stitched version. I'm sure Google could arrange a similar process and host the image data in such a way as not to hammer the original servers nor the X Planet server.
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And NASA's J-Track
There is also a plug-in for WorldWind.net.. but that is only 400 objects.. though it could be easily tweaked to show the 13,000 list as well I am sure.
The subject sums it up, but I'm getting a little pissed at technology that is developed at NASA (World Wind) is just getting co-opted by Google (Google Earth) with no respect paid to the initial innovators.
J-Track 3D has been around for years doing this exact same function of plotting satellite trajectories including ground trace and additional information if you click on the satellite.
Just because you do it using Google doesn't mean that it's new, cool, innovative or news worthy.
http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html
There is also J-Track which on Windows, with its "active desktop" feature, can be set as your background/wallpaper to always be tracking weather and satellites.
So how long before this can be used to determine when spy satellites are/are not overhead and able to observe you? I would assume that with some basic armchair assumptions about the FOV and zoom capabilities of the satellites' cameras, one could project a cone onto a model representing the surface of the earth and determine the viewable area to each satellite (the existence of which and orbits of which are generally known by satellite buffs).
I've long wondered if something like this is already available to foreign intelligence operatives... it's long been said that say the Russians know exactly when US spy satellites are due to be overhead, and change their behaviour and camouflage anything they don't want seen in time for when the satellites pass overhead.
It raises some interesting issues with respect to national security, the war on drugs/terror/etc. However, given it's all based on public knowledge and you can't exactly outlaw math, I fail to see what the government could do about it.
What? I don't get it. Should we call in the GDI, or is this yet another useless meme tag?
I think the story might be a little misleading.
I suspect that not every object's info is made available, rather only the objects that USSTRATCOM deems appropriate for public consumption. Spy Sats, classified objects, and other items that they classify as not appropriate certainly doesn't show up in this KML.
Or do they? ;-)
Lindsay Blanton
RadioReference.com
I think some companies should just go clean up all the retired/inactive/disfunctional satellites or junk and recycle it! ;)
Domo arigato Mr. Amato.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
It was certainly a shocker when Google Earth loaded up the satellite data. I knew there was a lot of crap up there, but damn!
If I could make one suggestion, though, should you continue to develop this: Different icons for different classes of satellite? For instance, a greyed-out icon for inactive satellites, a booster for rocket leftovers, a chunk of rock for space debris, etc... I spent about a minute wondering why there were so many weather satellites over the US until I realized that most of them were just orbiting debris.
Awesome use of Google Earth, though!
The usual format is NASA 2-line format. People (including me) have been using it to track satellites for years.
The orbital models have been refined over the years. The latest version I've seen is this one.
...laura
Go ahead and mod me OT, but it's Friday and I'm just pissed off to be the last person in the universe who knows the difference between a disclosure statement and a disclaimer.
"This is a cool new toy/tool/product I'm posting on Slashdot, and by the way, I not only work at the company that produces it, I wrote it" is a disclosure.
A disclaimer typically contains language such as "Not responsible for damages resulting from use, or inability to use, this product. Not even if it burns your house, steals your car, drinks your liquor from your old fruit jar, *and* steps on your blue suede shoes."
Disclosure statements are meant to inform the reader of, for example, a potential conflict of interest, and shield the discloser from potential liability (whether legal or just in terms of face) should the disclosure not be made.
Disclaimers are basically just weasel words intended to deny having any liability for, say, the quality or lack thereof, or some product. Or put another way, disclosure is taking responsibility (to some extent, at least, and not always), whereas disclaimers are solely intended to worm out of responsibility that the you probably have, at least morally if not legally. And maybe legally. Not all disclaimers will stand up in court. I wouldn't be surprised if most won't.
...and they're use's.
Have you seen Wall-E? It's not that bad. Yet.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Patriot Games showed us that women can be identified in spy satellite photos from their, ahem, curves.
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5
Your comment made me think about this article posted a while ago about a material with the lowest reflectivity ever measured....
"the researchers deposited silica nanorods at an angle of precisely 45 degrees on top of a thin film of aluminum nitride, which is a semiconducting material used in advanced light-emitting diodes (LEDs). From the side, the films look much like the cross section of a piece of lawn turf with the blades slightly flattened."
Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
I don't know a whole lot about satellites, and this is nice, however what would be really useful information, and this info may or may not be available, would be when you click on a satellite, what the satellite does, as well as the country of origin, declination, etc. I would kind of like to know who owns the satellite, not just what country that company is in. I kind of feel like that is giving the wrong answer in that field.
"Disclaimer: I not only work for Analytical Graphics, but I'm the one that wrote this tool as a demo."
That's not a disclaimer, that's a disclosure.
A disclaimer would be saying "I am not responsible" or "my employer may not agree with me".
-- All your bass are below two Hz