Convert satellite ID to groundtrack

by HULD

This is a tool to get the groundtrack from a certain satellite by having as input its satellite ID and the time at which the user wants to know its position. To find the ID of the satellite www.celestrak.com/NORAD/elements can be used. The website categorizes the satellites and give their respective TLE.

Example of TLE:

ATLAS CENTAUR 2         
1 00694U 63047A   20090.82980658  .00000230  00000-0  13759-4 0  9990
2 00694  30.3601 323.7151 0585979 224.1186 131.1207 14.02586114825678

Its ID is then 00694.

Its groundtrack is calculated from the TLE using the orbit_predictor python libraries.

OUTPUT

• format : json
• endpoint: /get/<NORAD_ID>
• exposed via: flask

Setting the environment

Requirements

• Docker installed
• Docker compose

Space-track account

• Create an account for the space-track, credentials put in the SECRET.JSON file.

Update Secret.json

• See the examples in /secret_sample.json
• Update this file with space-track.org credentials.
• Save it as a secret.json under /code/ directory (i.e /code/secret.json)

Update Settings.json

• time-resolution [in seconds] - time difference between each set of coordinates that are displayed
• n-points - total number of coordinates generated by a run of the script

Run following commands

docker-compose build
docker-compose up

Connection to the API

<docker IP>:5000/get/<NORAD_ID>

On Linux

e.g http://127.0.0.1:5000/get/42790

On Windows version XP,7,8 (i.e. without shell sub-system)

e.g 192.168.99.100:5000/get/42790  #correct IP will be displayed during booting up docker machine

Will output

{
  "columns": [
    "lat", 
    "lon"
  ], 
  "data": [
    [
      -67.80315618542544, 
      111.83694482641882
    ], 
    [
      -67.7436390548555, 
      111.77689092942468
    ], 
    [
      -67.68410227511471, 
      111.71711948151798
    ], 
    [
      -67.62454599630152, 
      111.6576283137814
    ], 
    [
      -67.56497036695984, 
      111.59841528087085
    ], 
    [
      -67.50537313600798, 
      111.53947589223328
    ], 
    [
      -67.44575924434334, 
      111.48081278490437
    ], 
    [
      -67.38612643864283, 
      111.42242149738335
    ], 
    [
      -67.3264748614167, 
      111.3642999662179
    ], 
    [
      -67.26680465371714, 
      111.30644614659903
    ]
  ], 
  "index": [
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:13 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:14 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:15 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:16 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:17 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:18 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:19 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:20 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:21 GMT", 
    "Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:03:22 GMT"
  ]
}