Orbital Debris

This is a repo which contains my work with orbital space debris and its effect on earth's atmosphere and enviroment. All source code for this project is in python. This code is completely open sourced and can be used by anyone for any purpose.

Required Python Packages

• Numpy
  • Used for various calculations.
  • Installation: pip install numpy
• MayAvi MLab
  • Used for ploting and displaying the orbits in 3d space.
  • Installation: pip install mayavi
• Pandas
  • Used for reading in the data from a csv file and organizing it with pandas dataframes.
  • Installation: pip install pandas
• MatPlotLib
  • Used for making simple 2D plots of solar energy.
  • Installation: pip install matplotlib

Running the Simulation

1. Install all required python packages noted above.
2. Navigate to the ./OrbitalDebris directory.
3. Run the orbitPlotter.py python script with python. Something like: python ./source/orbitPlotter.py.

Notes

• Within Constants.py there are multiple options that can be changed. The most important of these are PLOT_ORBITS and PLOT_ENERGY. If PLOT_ORBITS is set to True then the simulation will plot all the orbits of the object around a 3D earth. If PLOT_ENERGY is set to true then the simulation will plot a line graph showing the amount of reflected and absorbed solar energy at each latitude. If both are selected the simulation will do both processes.
• If you decide to run the script from a different location, such as inside the source folder, you may have to change the constants DATA_FILE_PATH and EARTH_IMAGE_PATH in Constants.py so the can be properly loaded.
• If you choose to plot a different number of orbits by changing NUM_ORBITS_PLOTTED in Constants.py it may take a very long time to load due to the slow render times with MayAvi.
• The thick black orbit shown in the plot is the average orbit of all orbits in the dataset.
• When installing packages using pip it may be necessary to use python -m pip install ... instead of pip install .... I am not sure why this is, but on most of my systems I am required to do this.

Sources

• Datafile containing all the orbits of the orbital debris can be found here https://www.space-track.org/auth/login. A valid account will be needed to access data.
• Earth Image is NASA's Blue Marble texture image and can be found here https://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=73909.