Celestia Forums

Hi, just wondering if there is an add-on available to allow observation of up to date ISS position, configuration, and stage of construction? Thanks!

There used to be some work done with the ISS, some rather nice work if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, as the ISS grows, it is now outdated.

There is no up-to-date model of the ISS available AFAIK for Celestia.

Also, the location constantly changes due to all sorts of things (orbital drag, orbit boosts from Soyuz and/or Progress spacecraft, etc).

Hungry4info wrote:...Also, the location constantly changes due to all sorts of things (orbital drag, orbit boosts from Soyuz and/or Progress spacecraft, etc).

Thanks for the reply. The ISS location doesn't have to be absolutely exact, I notice the folk over at Starry Night have it sussed (certainly when you compare it with any of the trackers out there or even on NASA TV). Is it that difficult to build in? I'm just a little surprised that with all the amazing stuff Celestia can do it's not part of the main program or at the least there's an add-on.

I, too, am honestly surprised as well. If I knew how to model things I'd do it myself and release to everyone, lol.

I think Celestia focuses on natural, astronomical objects, as opposed to artificial objects.

scroll wrote:

Hungry4info wrote:...Also, the location constantly changes due to all sorts of things (orbital drag, orbit boosts from Soyuz and/or Progress spacecraft, etc).

Thanks for the reply. The ISS location doesn't have to be absolutely exact, I notice the folk over at Starry Night have it sussed (certainly when you compare it with any of the trackers out there or even on NASA TV). Is it that difficult to build in? I'm just a little surprised that with all the amazing stuff Celestia can do it's not part of the main program or at the least there's an add-on.

Hi there,

well one part of an answer is, that the model builders are good AND accurate. So it takes them a lot of work to get the details right, just take a look at what the guys at CelestialMatters do.

The other issue is that the orbital parameters of those near earth objects get heavily influenced by a lot of factors (gravitational irregularities in the earth, the drag from the atmosphere, ...). Celestia does not calculate the orbits of the bodies that are represented within Celestia. These orbits are predefined and work pretty well for bigger bodies like planets and moons. Small objects that are very close to a body (especially with an atmosphere) are another chapter, these change strongly over time.
And Celestia then only has the data that came with it at the time of release.
But there should be some threads here in the forum, on how to update the position of the ISS with the official TLE (two line elements), that describe the ISS orbit at a given time.

Regards,

Guckytos

The last thread regarding the ISS for Celestia is here...
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11587&p=108615&hilit=iss+model#p108615

That was the last update to the model.
I may get round to doing an update to the model time permitting!

Thank you everyone for taking the time out to respond.
I knew it was too much to hope for a " go to File > Tools > Update ISS position" kind of answer!
But I understand now it's not what's Celestia's about.

I did find this thread which seems encouraging.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12582

Before I start on it (which might take me some time because this is new to me) could anyone suggest how often such a manual updating routine would need to take place?