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by hifikuno 583 days ago
This is awesome. Many years ago I tried making an Android app for uni that would help you point your phone at the star you selected. The maths for that was insane and way over my head, I can only imagine that satellites would be much harder.

Such a cool use of everyday tech!
2 comments
giantg2 583 days ago
It might actually be easier since they have know trajectories and velocities with a easy to calculate schedules.
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cdebeling 583 days ago
giantg2 is right! The position and velocities are already known in the form of a Two-line element set (TLE). That makes it quite easy to calculate its current location using orbit propagation algorithms.

If you want to go down a fun path I suggest reading more into TLE data. They are currently in the process of adapting the standard to allow for more satellites since in its current form it can only track 99,999 satellites

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bagels 582 days ago
There are libraries built with all of this math done for you already.

Astropy, orekit are two I recall from memory, but there are more

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