If your twitter feed does not have enough outer space in it, try following Space Bot (@gndtrkbot), a new twitter bot dedicated to all things space.
What Space Bot Does So Far
- Plots ground tracks for random objects in space
- What happened today for a deep space object at some point in the past.
- Plots periodic orbits about Lagrange points in the Earth Moon system
Note: Just because the objects are the likeliest to collide, does not mean a collision is either imminent or likely. Space is big and these objects are often very small and stay far away from each other.
What SpaceBot Can’t Do
- Open the pod bay doors
What I May Implement in the Future
- When the next space launch is
- People currently in space
- CR3BP Trajectories
- NASA imagery – that’s not Nasa Image of the Day
- Current weather on mars
- etc…
Note: If you have a good idea for what I should implement into SpaceBot let me know!
Depreciated Features
Spacebot is not permanent; features will come and go.
- Shows the two objects likeliest to collide that day, as well as when their closest approach will be. This feature will not be leaving twitter though, as it’s finding a new home on the SOSTC twitter account.
Why & How?
There’s a lot of cool space API’s out there and a lack of nerdy space-related twitter bots. Additionally, this provides a fun venue for projects which can be run and visualized autonomously so it doenst just end after a single blog post.
The scripts that run the account can be found here.