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2008-09-25

JTrack 3D From NASA Makes Satellite Tracking Easy

"Because of work done by Johannes Kepler in the 17th Century we are able to track and follow the 2,500 or so satellites (working and dead) plus nearly 6,000 other objects orbiting the Earth. NASA says that includes "orbital debris: parts such as nosecone shrouds, lens, hatch covers, rocket bodies, payloads that have disintegrated or exploded, and even objects that "escape" from manned spacecraft during operations. "

Eight thousand five hundred objects would be quite a burden for your PC and its display, but you can easily see and track 900 satellites with "JTrack 3D." This is a Java applet which needs no installation to run on your computer using data from NASA. Using Java, JTrack 3D is operating system agnostic! With your mouse you can move your view in 3D allowing a better understanding how certain areas are more likely to contain satellites.

The first thing you'll notice is how crowded things really are! There's a well populated ring around the Earth's equator with geostationary satellites. Closer to home the satellites mostly follow inclined orbits including many polar orbiters. "

http://www.appscout.com/2008/09/jtrack_3d_from_nasa_makes_sate.php

http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

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