Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/01/30/interactive-map-of-every-satel.html
…
1 Like
Another thing you don’t really see in the Star Wars movies…
5 Likes
This is very cool, and gives a very different visualization than Stuff in Space, In the Sky or the ArcGIS map.
Personally I’m very fond of the Deep Space Network Now page, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming Space Network Now (if it gets funded) which will include the TDRS net.
“37km up is a mess, with so many geostationary satellites clustered together”
Oh I think they are a lot higher than 37 kilometers. Unless the earth’s rotation slipped into 78 rpm or something last night.
They must be clustered together in fear as they are not going to be up there long. There’s traces of atmosphere at that height.
6 Likes
Shoot, there’s more than a trace of atmosphere at 37km. (-:
Sometimes, there’s even balloons and skydivers at that altitude.
I suspect, of course, that he meant “37k km”, which is to say, 37Mm.
[But do you have any idea how many confused looks you’ll get for using “Mm”? People just aren’t used to using megametres. (-:]
5 Likes
You can get tweets from space junk: @FengyunAdrift,@VanguardAdrift, @SuitSat.
Warning- it is depressing (and performance art.)
I did a few views from this data many (10!) years ago, before we had cool visualization software like Quartz has used.
I used a histogram across apogee and perigee because I wanted to see if there were satellites in eccentric orbits besides the bunch in circular ones, and labelled some interesting ones.
I think the geosynchronous orbit view would benefit from knowing what longitudes they are stationed over. So I made this visual back then.
It’s not interactive but it works.
The sections of earth with the highest numbers of satellites tend to be the most populous. (Click on the chart for a bigger picture) A bunch are stationed at longitudes to serve the United States (105W) and South America (55W and 45W), some over Europe (15E) and the United Kingdom (0), some over the Far East (105E) and a few over Australia (140E). There are satellites at almost every longitude.
4 Likes
I think you’re missing some thousands in your distances. 37 km is the distance from Atlanta to Marietta.
this new-fangled metric system is soooo complicated!
1 Like
What? I don’t think there are any km between Atlanta and Marietta. It’s all miles, or possibly feet, furlongs and rods!
3 Likes
How many hogsheads does it take you to drive a rod?
1 Like
A full gill of whale oil! Unless it’s exceptionally hot out.
And of course we wore an onion on our belt in those days, it being the fashion…
Edit: I actually own an elaborate whale oil lamp. It is the most aweful example of Victorian “taste” I have ever seen, which is why I cannot seem to throw it away. It’s hideous and lives in an obscure corner of the barn, so as not to accidentally damage anyone’s eyeballs or psyche.
Edit2: Damn, that got off topic fast.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
