Awesome Space

A curated list of space-related code, APIs, data, and other resources.

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Table of Contents

Astronomy

Astronomy APIs

  • AstroBin API
    • AstroBin is an image hosting website specifically targeted to astrophotographers. Its API offers a basic set of RESTful endpoints. Currently the API is read-only, and allows you to get data about images, and perform basic searches.
  • astrometry.net
    • "If you have astronomical imaging of the sky with celestial coordinates you do not know—or do not trust—then Astrometry.net is for you. Input an image and we'll give you back astrometric calibration meta-data, plus lists of known objects falling inside the field of view."
  • Open Astronomy Catalog API
    • The Open Astronomy Catalog API (OACAPI) offers a lightweight, simple way to access data available via the Open Astronomy Catalogs (e.g. the Open Supernova, Tidal Disruption, Kilonova, and Fast Stars Catalogs).
  • SpaceXDB-Api
    • SpaceXDB is a website containing SpaceX launch information and telemetry.

Astronomy Software

Radio Astronomy

  • VIRGO
    • An open-source Spectrometer for Radio Astronomy

Visualization

  • 100,000 Stars
    • 100,000 Stars is an interactive visualization of the stellar neighborhood showing the location of 119,617 nearby stars.
  • ANISE
    • ANISE provides a toolkit and files for Attitude, Navigation, Instrument, Spacecraft, and Ephemeris data. It's a modern replacement of the NAIF SPICE toolkit.
  • Celestia
  • Cesium.js
    • An open-source JavaScript library for world-class 3D globes and maps
  • Gaia Sky
    • Real-time, 3D, astronomy visualization software developed in the framework of ESA's Gaia mission. Runs on Windows, Linux and macOS.
  • Harmony of the Spheres
    • Newtonian gravity and space simulator that runs in your browser
  • KStars
    • KStars is free, open source, cross-platform astronomy software. It provides many features, including a graphical simulation of the night sky, observing planner, a sky calendar tool, an FOV editor, and more.
  • LeoLabs Visualization
    • Low Earth Orbit Catalog Visualization.
  • Mars Now
    • This visualization shows the current location and communication activity of all operating landers, rovers and orbiters at Mars that transmit data to Earth via NASA’s Mars Relay Network.
  • NASA Eyes
    • Immersible apps to explore the Earth and solar system
  • Orb Viewer
    • Visualization of all the asteroids in the MPC database.
  • Orbit Simulator
    • A powerful numerical integration tool. "By performing n-body simulations, you can study the orbits of planets, moons, asteroids, or any object in the universe."
  • Orbiter 2016
  • SpaceEngine : Realistic universe simulator and planetarium. Old versions are free.
  • Stellarium
    • Open source planetarium for your computer

SDKs & Software Development Tools

  • ASCL.net
    • A free online registry for source code of interest to astronomers and astrophysicists
  • AstroKit
    • A web-based toolset for performing lightcurve photometry
  • astrometry.net
    • Code and an API for generating astrometric calibration meta-data
  • AstroPy
    • Collection of software packages written in Python and designed for use in astronomy
  • Rebound
    • A multi-purpose N-body integrator
  • Skyfield
    • Skyfield computes positions for the stars, planets, and satellites in orbit around the Earth.
  • Spacekit.js
    • An open-source library for building interactive Javascript- and WebGL-based space visualizations.

Community

Learning Materials

  • NewSpace Startup Legal Guide – A guide tailored for space industry startups. It covers licensing of space activities, public-private partnerships in space, legal intricacies of launching payloads, space risk insurance, etc.
  • NITARP
    • NITARP, the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program, gets teachers & students involved in authentic astronomical research.
  • RDFvocab
    • A collection of linked data ontologies (semantically linked representations) that describe astronomical and space engineering concepts. Can be used to link popular data sets like DBPedia.
  • Resources and references on the topic of space exploration
    • StackExchange list of books, manuals, courses, and more.
  • Space Jargon Cheatsheet – list of space-related terms and jargon

Space Hackathons and Challenges

  • ActInSpace
    • A hackathon about space app, every even year, launched by the french CNES.
  • Space Apps Challenge
    • NASA-led initiative organized in collaboration with Booz Allen Hamilton, Mindgrub and SecondMuse.

Working Groups

  • Open Source Satellite
    • Ecosystem for sharing ideas and creating a "highly capable, flexible and affordable open source microsatellite platform." Founded by "a team of international space experts" dedicated to open source.

Data

Astronomy Data

Data Directories

  • api.nasa.gov
    • NASA's API portal
  • Data.gov - NASA
    • The US Federal government's open data portal page for NASA data sets. If you search by Bureaus, Organizations, or Publishers, you'll find additional space-related data sets from NASA/GSFC, NOAA, the Space Science Technology Directorate, selected universities, and more.
  • data.nasa.gov
    • Continually growing catalog of publicly available NASA datasets, APIs, visualizations, and more
  • images.nasa.gov
    • Search NASA's informational image and video archive
  • MAST
    • A NASA-funded site that provides astronomical data archives focused on scientific data sets in the optical, ultraviolet, and near-IR.
  • Small Satellite Information Search
    • NASA's federated search portal for small spacecraft parts, technologies and conference proceedings.

Data Wrangling Tools

Earth

Extrasolar Planets

Launches

  • Launch Dashboard API
    • Open Source REST API for rocket launch telemetry
  • Launch Library 2
    • A free to use API with rocket launches, astronauts, events, etc. that application developers can use. It is the successor of the original Launch Library and Space Launch Now APIs. As it is maintained by The Space Devs, news and support are provided on their Discord server.
  • Unofficial SpaceX REST API
    • Open Source REST API for rocket, core, capsule, pad, and launch data

Solar System Data

  • Asterank
    • Asterank is a scientific and economic database of over 600,000 asteroids.
  • astorbDB
    • A database of orbital elements and observed physical properties (when available) for all known minor planets in the Solar System.
  • IAU Minor Planet Center
    • Clearing house for observations of asteroids and other smaller solar system bodies
  • LROC QuickMap
    • Quality 2D and 3D maps of the moon
  • NASA's Planetary Data System
    • A long-term archive of digital data products returned from NASA's planetary missions
  • NASA's Solar System Treks
    • Access surface elevation profiles, sun angles, 3D print files, and VR experiences in our solar system

Orbits

  • Celestrak
    • Celestrak is the world's oldest source for orbital element sets (and related software and educational materials).
  • JPL's HORIZONS
    • Generate ephemerides for solar-system bodies
  • Space Physics Data Facility
    • Web-based services for survey and high resolution data and trajectories
  • Satcat.com
    • Satcat is a web application by Kayhan Space that provides search, visualizations, and orbital design tools

Space News

Spacecraft

Full Satellites

  • Quetzal-1
    • Quetzal-1 was a 1U CubeSat developed by an engineering team from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG). Quetzal-1 operated successfully in space for 211 days.
  • SUCHAI-2
    • SUCHAI 2, 3, and PlantSat were 3U CubeSats developed at the Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory (SPEL) of the University of Chile. This is the complete flight software and ground software used for these satellites.

General Software

Ground Stations

  • FoxTelem
    • FoxTelem is used by a network of ground stations to retrieve the telemetry and experiment data from the Fox Satellites.
  • GRID
    • Commercial network of satellite groundstations with simple to use Python SDK.
  • Open Satellite Project
    • Ongoing effort to develop open-source software for the receipt and decoding of satellite data using software-defined radio (SDR) hardware
  • Phase 4 Ground
    • Open source digital broadband satellite and terrestrial radio systems, part of Open Research Institute
  • SatNOGS
    • A global network of satellite ground stations, designed as an open source participatory project
  • TinyGS
    • Open network of ground stations to receive and operate LoRa satellites using cheap and versatile modules

Mission Control

  • COSMOS
    • Open source mission control and satellite test & development framework
  • Open MCT
    • Ames's next-generation mission control framework for visualization of data on desktop and mobile devices.
  • Yamcs
    • Open source mission control framework (works also as backend for OpenMCT).

Mission Design

  • Delta V calculator for LEO/MEO/GEO injection
  • Flight Club
    • Orbital launch simulator and trajectory visualisation software
  • FreeFlyer
    • A software application for space mission design, analysis, and operations.
  • GMAT
    • The General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) is a space trajectory optimization and mission analysis system (NASA)
  • GO by ienai SPACE
    • A software tool which allows for general design and optimization of missions with electric propulsion systems.
  • NASA Ames Research Center Trajectory Browser
    • A tool to find spacecraft trajectories to planets and small-bodies
  • Nyx
    • Nyx is a high fidelity astrodynamics toolkit for mission design and orbit determination in Rust and Python, used on several lunar missions.
  • Open Space Toolkit
    • Collection of versatile software libraries for space engineering applications (e.g., environment modeling, orbit and access computation).
  • poliastro
    • Poliastro is an open source pure Python package dedicated to problems arising in Astrodynamics and Orbital Mechanics. Focuses on interplanetary design.
  • SPICE
    • Ephemerides library used by JPL for their missions. SpiceyPy is a Python wrapper.
  • SpOCK
    • The Spacecraft Orbital Computations Kit is an open source tool for spacecraft mission analysis and simulation.
  • Systems Tool Kit (STK)
    • Simulate missions and create reports, graphs, and 3D animations (paid). From Analytical Graphics, Inc.

Simulation

  • 42
    • Attitude and trajectory simulation of Spacecraft (NASA)
  • Basilisk
    • C/C++ astrodynamics and attitude control simulation (includes Python scripting).
  • Gazebo
    • Robotics simulator often used for planetary rovers
  • LunCo – An open-source full-cycle Lunar Colony & space operations sim tool for engineers and enthusiasts
  • NOS3
    • NASA Operational Simulator for Small Satellites
  • Trick
    • End-to-end physics simulation package, useful for simulating missions (but requires orbital dynamics models). C, C++, with Python (SWIG) interface.

Spacecraft Hardware

  • FossaSat-1
    • Hardware designs and software for the FossaSat-1 Pocketqube satellite (GitHub)
  • NASA Outgassing Db
    • A dataset of materials intended for spacecraft use from the Goddard Space Flight Center, the Stanford Research Institute, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  • Oresat
    • An open source cubesat developed at Oregon Small Satellite Project.
  • ProjectInertia
    • An open source hardware platform to achieve a FRAM-based radiation-tolerant microcontroller for space application. The firmware is being developed in Rust.
  • PyCubed
    • An Open-Source, Radiation-Tested CubeSat Framework Programmable Entirely in Python.
  • Qubik
    • Open source software and hardware pocketqube satellite
  • Radiation Test Database
    • Radiation test results for many components.
  • SatSearch, CubeSatShop
    • Search engines for satellite parts and their datasheets
  • The AMSAT CubeSat Simulator Project
    • a low cost satellite emulator that runs on solar panels and batteries, transmits UHF radio telemetry, has a 3D printed frame, and can be extended by additional sensors and modules.
  • UPSat
    • Open source satellite software and hardware

GNSS Receivers

  • libswiftnav and libsbp (Swift binary protocol for communicating with receiver hardware)

Radios

  • LFR transceiver
    • Little Free Radio (LFR) is an open source, command, telemetry, and data radio for cubesats.
  • OpenLST transceiver hardware and firmware
    • OpenLST is an open source, proven radio design for communicating with remote instruments, vehicles, and stations using low-cost commercial components. Based on Planet Labs' telemetry/command radio.

Star Trackers

Spacecraft Software

  • cFS Basecamp
    • Provides a lightweight environment to help you learn NASA’s cFS and create app-based solutions for your projects. The built-in hands-on tutorials shorten the path to productivity.
  • Core Flight System
    • NASA portable and extendable flight software framework with extensive flight heritage and a growing suite of applications and platform ports
  • FossaSat-1
    • Hardware designs and software for the FossaSat-1 Pocketqube satellite (GitHub)
  • JPL F Prime
    • F Prime (Fʹ) is a component-driven framework that enables rapid development and deployment of spaceflight and other embedded software applications, originally developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
  • KubOS
    • An open-source flight software framework for satellites
  • LibreCube
    • Open source space and Earth exploration. Defining a generic architecture of system of systems that have standardized interfaces makes it possible to combine and reuse elements for various applications
  • Linux4Space
    • Open source Yocto based Linux distribution suitable for space applications
  • NanoSat MO Framework
    • A software framework for nanosatellites based on the latest CCSDS standards. Developed by ESA and used in OPS-SAT mission (GitHub)
  • OpenSatKit
  • SatCat5
    • A mixed-media Ethernet switch for connecting smallsat payloads
  • SUCHAI FS
    • The SUCHAI Flight Software is a FOSS framework for developing flight and ground software for nanosatellites. It has been used in the SUCHAI-1, SUCHAI-2, SUCHAI-3 and PlantSat CubeSat missions.
  • UPSat
    • Open source satellite software and hardware

Legacy

Tracking & Orbit Determination

  • AstriaGraph
    • Open source data and visualization of all known objects in Earth’s orbit
  • Astro::Coord::ECI::TLE
    • Perl implementation of NORAD progation models
  • Gpredict
    • Open source, real-time satellite tracking and orbit prediction application.
  • jspredict
    • A Javascript port of the popular predict satellite tracking library.
  • KeepTrack
    • Open-source TypeScript and WebGl app for visualizing satellites, radars, telescopes, missiles, and breakups.
  • Orb Calc
    • Generate positions of objects from orbital parameters.
  • Orbit Determination Tool Kit (ODTK)
    • Processes traditional and non-traditional measurements using a sequential filter & matched smoother to generate orbits with realistic covariance (paid). From Analytical Graphics, Inc.
  • Orbital Object Toolkit
    • TypeScript port of python-sgp4 plus additional features for working with TLEs, satellites, and sensors.
  • Orekit
    • An accurate and efficient core layer for space flight dynamics applications written in Java.
  • perturb
    • A modern C++ library for SGP4 orbit propagation of TLEs
  • Predict
    • PHP implementation of the SGP4 and SDP4 models for prediction, based on Gpredict
  • python-sgp4
    • Python implementation of most recent version of the SGP4 satellite tracking algorithm
  • satellite.js
    • A library to make satellite propagation via TLEs possible on the web. Provides the functions necessary for SGP4/SDP4 calculations, as callable javascript. Also provides functions for coordinate transforms.
  • Space-Track.org
    • Programmatic access to Two-Line Elements, Orbital Mean-Elements, satellite catalog information, space debris, and more.
  • Where the ISS at?
    • Real time tracking of the International Space Station, with email push notifications for upcoming passes and a REST API for integrations. Based on Predict

License

CC0

To the extent possible under law, The Orbital Index has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

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