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ISS-Above Tells You When the International Space Station is Overhead (Video)
It's a device, and quite a small one, based on the Raspberry Pi. It tells you when the ISS is visible from your part of the world and when it will soon be visible so you can grab the kids and dogs and run outside to wave at the astronauts. Or just to watch the closest thing humanity has to a space colony orbit the Earth. Liam Kennedy, ISS-Above's creator, points out that the ISS passes over most of the inhabited parts of the Earth five or six times a day, which is more than most people know. And about ISS-Above and Kickstarter: It's too late to climb on that wagon, and it already was when this interview was recorded in mid-May. But don't despair. Liam managed to raise $17,731 -- which was far more than his $5000 goal. Can you buy one of these things in its various manifestations? Yes. But you need to look long and hard at the ISS-Above website to spot the all-caps word HERE that takes you to the order page. Liam also points out that you can get all kinds of smartphone apps that will tell you where the ISS is at any given moment, but the ISS-Above has an advantage or two over those apps that will be revealed only to those who watch the video or read the transcript. (Alternate Video Link)
Just a few lines of code the writes "RIGHT NOW".
I was just thinking "I don't own enough expensive single-use gadgets whose meagre functionality could be replaced by a few lines of code."
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
There are a ton of mobile apps that do this for free. How much did Slashdot make for running this advertisement?
But even having those, they really just don’t give you the special presence of really knowing where it is.
So the advantage is some kind of touchy-feely new age warmth of a "special presence of really knowing where it is"? I fail to see that to be 100% honest and I've seen the ISS pass over me hundreds if not more than a thousand times. My app or the heavens above site works just fine, thankyouverymuch.
Maybe I'm just not putting something together here but this almost seems pointless. It sounds like a neat project for the high school computer lab but it's certainly not much more.
I'm pretty sure there's an app for that....
http://www.isstracker.com/
I guess I won't be buying one.
There's only so much disposable income to go around. And then some of it gets wasted on stuff like this.
Let's see...pay $150 for something to blink an LED to alert a potential sighting for a single orbiting object vs. paying $0 for your smartphone to blink an LED to alert a potential sighting for virtually all significant objects in orbit.
This is the most blatant slashvertisment yet.
I've seen it around before. There could also be a market for airplane models that light up when a similar plane is ovehead. Say a 747 model that lights up whenever a 747 is near. There are plenty of websites that track planes.
but the ISS-Above has an advantage or two over those apps that will be revealed only to those who watch the video or read the transcript.
Let me guess: It plays this whenever the ISS passes overhead.
Have gnu, will travel.
this is so you can shine lasers at it.
could do this and not be a giant hack, AND it will have a full and integrated control scheme in a nice package with a warranty. I have had this app on my android device for at least 2 years. I have 4 RasPis and a ton of 16x2 LCD displays, Ethernet arduinos, etc and none of it comes close to a nice cheap android solution for this function. You could even go full AOSP with such a simple function.
Good-bye
I use http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ from NASA. Give it a country, region and city and it will email you the morning of a possible sighting with the details of start time, rise direction, set direction and apogee, length of visibility.
Oh yeah, and it's free.
Maybe I'm missing something, but this thing doesn't even have a GPS? You have to tell it where you are? I'm not watching the video to figure out what the special advantages are. This seems like a fun project, but I'm not sure why the hell anyone would buy one.
Why?
(Note that I don't know if that's the best app for ISS detection. It's just the first one that came up.)
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Free and IMNSHO better solution:
goto Heavens-above.com
Enter your location by clicking on "Change your observing location".
Click on ISS at the top of Satellites list.
You get a list of visible passes, the more negative the brightness (magnitude) number, the easier to see the ISS passing overhead.
Click a pass listing and you get a star map showing constellations, times, compass directions, and path of ISS through the sky.
Go outside. Watch ISS.
I've seen these guys before at maker faire. It's a neat idea, but I never really understood what was so special about it compared to just downloading a smartphone app or internet or (*gasp*) maybe even reading up on how to do the math and figuring out where it is on your own.
And I use http://spotthestation.nasa.gov... myself, and don't want a $1500 electric bicycle, but there are people who like cute little LED gadgets and have $150 to spend on them, and who want hipster-cool, retro-styled, expensive electric bicycles. So why should I knock them?
And 100th repeat: Slashdot doesn't get paid for running positive stories about a person or device or whatever. Sometimes it's nice to look at something and say, "Y'know, that's kind of cool and the person making it is kind of likeable." That's pretty much Tim's thought process at a show or conference when he points his camcorder at someone or something.
And if you don't want to spend your money on a gadget, you can get localized pass predictions from heavens-above.com .
Just kidding...had you going then.
ISS Detector Satellite Tracker, is an excellent app for android mobile devices
1. Find an app that does something vaguely cool and science-y
2. Replicate about 50% of its functionality with a microcomputer that's far less convenient to use than a phone
3. ???
4. Profit!
Hey everyone, I've just built a hefty box with an Arduino in it that lets you play Flappy Bird on a 16x16 grid of LEDs. One at a time please, no shoving.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
*fap*
No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
http://spaceweather.com/flybys...
Which also tells you about loads of other object floating above your head, plus has audible alerts (if you want them) for any particular object.
As so many other bits of software previous mentioned also do.
Why acquire a piece of not-practically-portable hardware to do what you can set the mobe in your pocket to do?
Weird.
The main thing you need is a consistent source of ephemeris data. I've gone poking around a little with Google and haven't really found a good one. There are two or three NASA services that claim to provide the data, but they're never responding whenever I check. I suppose if you're a bit more motivated than I am (my motivation is currently at a "meh" level,) you could probably find one.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
SpaceWeather.com has a "Flybys " website; enter your zip code (USA) or Lat/Long (Anyplace) to see a list of overflights of the ISS and a couple dozen other satellites that are bright enough to see.
http://www.spaceweather.com/fl...
The web site is free; they have an Android and iOS app for five bucks, I think, that sounds an alarm.
More than good enough. Although I can see how designing your own device and programming it yourself is more impressive than buying an app or navigating to a web site.
Of course most of us don't need that gadget, but it's cool to see an older nerd like that picking up nerd-skills and making cool nerd stuff. :)
Instead of saying "that is cute, but Simpsons did it" you can also say like "you must have had a lot of fun making it" and enjoy his enthusiasm
Privacy is terrorism.
> ISS-Above has an advantage or two over those apps
But the advantages it supposedly has have nothing to do with it being a dedicted piece of hardware, and could be implemented better and cheaper in an app...
Hey Slashdotters
Thanks for all the comments - I truly love seeing the reaction to this post about the (my) ISS-Above.
I just want you all to know I appreciate everything each one of you has said about me and about the ISS-Above. Very entertaining (and in many cases - a very appropriate reaction to a rather specialized and expensive device).
I'm not responding here to try to persuade any of you to have a different opinion. I do however want to at least speak to some of the misunderstandings that I see here - for the benefit of others who find this post and would otherwise be left with a very skewed view of what the device is (I wonder how many actually took the time to view the video?).
Firstly I built this device initially simply as something to give to my grandkids in England in December (I selfishly want my grandkids to see me as "the cool grandpa"). Instead of a "star" or "fairy" sitting on the top of their Christmas tree my grand-kids had an ISS-Above . They were all pretty excited to get one (and still are)
The point is the device makes a fuss whenever the ISS is above your horizon. It's not just about letting you know when it is visible. It flashes in the day-time - in the middle of the night (it apparently scares some peoples dogs/cats when it goes off in the middle of the night).
For me - this is about drawing attention to the fact we have this incredible feat of human achievement - the only permanently manned human outpost in space - and that it's above your location way more often than you actually even knew. So it's about inspiring awareness - and also about inspiring young kids to take a look at the incredibly versatile Single Board Computer paradigm (the Raspberry Pi).
Those free apps are all awesome (I have ALL OF THEM - plus some paid ones too) but they just don't do it for me. They take too much "care and feeding" for me to actually use consistently.. and I don't need yet another app on my phone that beeps and buzzes to let me know something else. The ISS-Above sits on a shelf - in your house / office / coffee shop and simply does it's job of reminding you (and anyone who can see it) when the ISS is passing by. Anyone within sight of it can see it. It inspires a greater understanding of and appreciation for what we are doing in space (this confirmed from lots of feedback and comments I have received from users of the ISS-Above all around the world).
One other thing the ISS-Above does is that it also autotweets whenever the ISS comes particularly close to your location. That's also a CRITICAL part of my vision. This is a two-way thing - it's both to have us down here be more present to the wonderful stuff going on in orbit - plus it's also to show NASA and all the astronauts up there how we KNOW they are there and appreciate what they are doing. NASA Johnson (mission control for the ISS) actually asked me to make sure the tweets tag them.
That autotweet can be customized. Now that I have shipped nearly 300 units worldwide there are a lot of tweets going out "to" the space station every day. I think of it like a world-wide wave to the space station. Check some of them out at http://twitter.com/issaboveyou
When I started building this I had NO expectation that ANYONE would find it particularly useful or interesting enough to buy one. There was some press about the device (e.g. Reddit / Hackaday / Universetoday / CNET / TWiT.tv) and I started to get emails and questions from people who said they wanted one. That's when I was persuaded to create a Kickstarter. It surprised the heck out of me when I found out how many people wanted one. All the Kickstarter orders have been shipped (probably the fastest Kickstarter fulfillment in history) and including orders I received after the Kickstarter closed there are close to 300 units worldwide now.
So - yes - the ISS-Above may not be for you. But then I never built it for "YOU".... I built it for my own wickedly sel
Hi :D