New Release of StarBridge

[jdavies]

I have just finished testing for StarBridge v0.6.0 and published it for public use at the locations provided below.

What is StarBridge
StarBridge is a program that updates and converts files that contain technical information about stars and satellites. It is primarily intended for users of the Celestia program. Currently, StarBridge runs in command-line mode only. However, a graphical user interface is already under development and will be available in the next release.

What Can I Do With StarBridge?

• Get up-to-date information on satellites orbiting the earth to assist your viewing.
• Create your own fictional universe and populate it with stars, planets, natural and man-made satellites and view the results in Celestia

Download Information
Binary version: http://jeffdavies.org/files/starbridge/starbridge.zip
Source code: http://jeffdavies.org/files/starbridge/ ... ge_src.zip

You can also see news and updates on my site: http://jeffdavies.org/starbridge. I have also posted the installation notes there.
You can view the ReadMe file at: http://jeffdavies.org/starbridge/ReadMe.html
You can view the online User Guide at http://jeffdavies.org/starbridge/userguide/index.html

What is new in 0.6.0?

• Update Check feature has been added. You can now configure StarBridge
  to look for newer versions of StarBridge. These features are turned on by default. Use the
  Edit -> Options menu to set your update preferences.
• Added a satellite browser to the GUI. You can now use the GUI for editing satellite file information.
  More improvements to this interface are incomming.
• Created the Celestia add-in. This creates a starbridge/ folder in the Celestia
  extras/ folder. It also copies the starbridge.celx file into the Celestia
  scripts/ folder. You can run the script within Celestia by selecting
  File -> Scripts -> Update Satellites from the main menu.
• Provided a work-around an issue with the satellite names with regard to Celestia. Some
  satellites have a forward slash ("/") in their names and Celestia doesn't like that.
  So now when the information is exported to Celestia, all forward slashes are replaced by a dash (-)
  character.
• Added the NORAD tracking number and International Code as additional names for each satellite
  when you export satellites into Celestia format.
• Altered the Celestia satellite output file (the .ssc) to contain the original Two Line Element
  (TLE) information for each satellite. This will help other people to confirm the accuracy of my
  algorithms that convert from TLE format to Celestia format.
• Added the InfoURL attribute to the Celestia satellite information to take you to the
  http://www.n2yo.com/satellite web site when you request information on a satellite from withing Celestia.
• Added a crude 3DS model for the default satellite and the GOES class of satellites. Not much to look at
  but I think they are more interesting than the default sphere that was used before this release. if anyone
  wants to volunteer to provide more or better satellite models, please let me know!
• Added the data/starbridge.satmeshmap file. This file is used to map satellites to their models
  by name. You can map all satellites with a specific name to a single model and/or map a model to a specific
  satellite. Take a look at the data/satellite_meshes.properties file for information on how this is done.
• Fixed the Satellite Converter dialog to use the recommended default directories. It will also rememeber
  the last files used for each adapter. Makes repetitive tasks using the GUI a bit easier.
• Added new StarBridge specific file extensions. Universe files now end in ".sbuniv" instead of
  ".xml". Similarly, satellite files end with ".sbsat" instead of ".xml".
• Renamed the <code>data/</code> directory to config/ to more accurately reflect its purpose.
• Added pattern matching to the Select Satellite By Name field in the Select Satellites
  dialog box. For example, if you enter the following: "^ISS, [.]*DEB[.]*" into the By Name
  field of the Select Satellites dialog, you are telling StarBridge to look for all satellites whose name
  either starts with "ISS" or contains the string "DEB". These are examples of
  "Regular Expressions". They can be a bit tricky to use and they are not for the faint of heart. To
  learn more about regular expressions just Google it!

- Jeff

[jdavies]

Despite my efforts at testiing before a release, sometimes little things do get through. As it turns out, the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file (in the bin/ directory) contains an important typo. I changed the name of the celestrack.properties file to celestrak.properties, to match the proper spelling of the CelesTrak.com web site. However, I did not change this filename in the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file.

It easy to fix though, just open up the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file using a text editor and look for the following section of text:

Code: Select all

TLEAdapter file=..\data\celestrack.properties

and change it to

Code: Select all

TLEAdapter file=..\data\celestrak.properties

and it will run fine.

I'm currently working on a CELX script that will allow you to update the satellite information from within Celestia. I'm interested in hearing any feedback that you may have on the program so far. Thanks all!

- Jeff

[duds26]

It would be really awesome to see this thightly integrated into celestia.
Being able to right-click on something like the hubble that says track date or something like that
and then let starbridge get the corresponding data, path, current position, etc... of it.
(It will have to be translated into C++ for that. )


Imagine seeing the ISS where it actually is! Or other satellites.
So we could use celestia for checking if there is something to see with a telescope.

[jdavies]

Hi Duds,
The satellite information can be copied into the Celestia/extras folder, then you can see the satellites from within Celestia. They are easier to see visually on the light side of the planet. They appear as white orbs circling the globe. Bear in mind that the GPS satellites tend to be alot further from the earth than many other types of satellites. Or, you can right-click on the earth in Celestia and select Satellites -> Spacecraft from the popup menu and select the specific satellite you want to view that way.

I have written a CELX script that will run update the satellites file from within Celestia. The code for the script is below. Just save it as starbridge.celx in the Celestia\scripts folder. Run Celestia and then select File -> Scripts -> Update Satellites from the main menu and the script will run StarBridge and create the satellites data inside of Celestia for you (in the extras\norad_satellites.ssc file).

Before you can run this script, you must define the STARBRIDGE_HOME environment variable. Assuming that you unzipped the starbridge.zip file into a directory on your machine named c:\starbridge, you then need to create an environment variable named STARBRIDGE_HOME and set it to c:\starbridge. Once this is done, you can use the Celestia script I provide below.

If you have any trouble at all, please let me know and I will be happy to work with you to get things working. You feedback helps me to create better documentation, so don't hesitate to ask for help.

- Jeff

Code: Select all

-- Title: Update Satellites
-- Celestia script for accessing StarBridge from within Celestia
result = celestia:requestsystemaccess()
wait(0)
sb_home=os.getenv("STARBRIDGE_HOME")
if sb_home == nil then
   celestia:flash("The STARBRIDGE_HOME environment variable has not been defined",5)
   wait(5)
   celestia:flash("Please define this environment variable. See the StarBridge docs for details.",5)
   wait(5)
else
   command = "java -Xms32m -Xmx512m -jar " .. sb_home .. "/starbridge.jar -readSat TLEAdapter file="
   command = command .. sb_home .. "\\data\\celestrak.properties -writeSat CelestiaAdapter "
   command = command .. "file=extras\\norad_satellites.ssc"
   celestia:flash(command,5)
   os.execute(command)
   wait(5)
   
end

celestia:flash("StarBridge: You will need to restart Celestia to see the new satellites",5)
wait(5)

[chris]

Despite my efforts at testiing before a release, sometimes little things do get through. As it turns out, the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file (in the bin/ directory) contains an important typo. I changed the name of the celestrack.properties file to celestrak.properties, to match the proper spelling of the CelesTrak.com web site. However, I did not change this filename in the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file.

It easy to fix though, just open up the UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd file using a text editor and look for the following section of text:

Code: Select all

TLEAdapter file=..\data\celestrack.properties

and change it to

Code: Select all

TLEAdapter file=..\data\celestrak.properties

and it will run fine.

I'm currently working on a CELX script that will allow you to update the satellite information from within Celestia. I'm interested in hearing any feedback that you may have on the program so far. Thanks all!

- Jeff

Jeff,

The ability to automatically get satellite data into Celestia is great! I'm trying to use the program now to do just that, but it appears that the celestrak.properties file is missing from both the source and binary packages.

(I love the toolbag example in the docs--I didn't realize that you could get its orbit that from Celestrak.)

--Chris

[jdavies]

Shoot, sorry I overlooked that. You can download the celestrack.properties file directly from http://jeffdavies.org/files/starbridge/ ... properties for now. Be sure to save the file in the StarBridge data/ folder as celestrak.properties. I'll get the file included in the next distribution. Thanks for pointing it out Chris!

- Jeff

[Chuft-Captain]

Jeff,

I get the following exception:

C:\starbridge\bin>UpdateCelestiaSatellites.cmd
***********************************************************
* This script will create a Celesta formatted *
* "celestrack_satellites.ssc" file from the current *
* information for NORAD satellite data from the web site: *
* CelesTrack.com. If you want to see these satellites in *
* Celestia, simply copy the "celestrack.ssc" file into *
* the "extras" directory of Celestia folder. *
* See the ReadMe.html file for more info *
***********************************************************
Press any key to continue . . .
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/jeffdavie
s/starbridge/StarBridge (Unsupported major.minor version 50.0)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)
Press any key to continue . . .

C:\starbridge\bin>

I have Java 2 Runtime Environment, SE v1.4.2_02 installed
Please advise...

CC

[jdavies]

Hi CC,
The reason you are seeing that is because you are running an older version of Java (1.4_02, as you said). StarBridge is compiled with Java version 1.6. You can download the 1.6 JRE from Sun at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp (click the first download button in the list). Many browsers use Java already, so you may already have 1.6 installed on your system and you just need to update your PATH environment variable to point to the bin/ directory of the Java 1.6 installation folder.

If you have any trouble at all, please let me know. Thanks for copying and pasting the full error message, it really helps.

- Jeff

[chris]

Shoot, sorry I overlooked that. You can download the celestrack.properties file directly from http://jeffdavies.org/files/starbridge/ ... properties for now. Be sure to save the file in the StarBridge data/ folder as celestrak.properties. I'll get the file included in the next distribution. Thanks for pointing it out Chris!

Thanks! It's working very nicely now.

I've got a few suggestions to improve the generation of ssc files from Celestrak elements:

• The radius has an unreasonable number of digits; it looks like it should just be 0.005 (= 5 meters)
• Specifying the epoch as a Julian date is fine, but it the generated ssc files would be slightly easier to understand if you used date strings, e.g. "2001 1 15 12:30:16". Keep in mind that both Julian dates and year/month/day/time dates are in the TDB time standard, which is about 34 seconds ahead of UTC after this most recent leap second.
• The rotation elements generated for the satellites use an old syntax. The new syntax is more flexible, permitting alternate rotation models to be used for objects. I recommend replacing Obliquity, EquatorAscendingNode, and RotationOffset with:
  

  Code: Select all

  FixedRotation { }

  
  This will keep the satellite from rotating, which is probably the best default in the absence of any information about orientation or rotation rate.

--Chris

[jdavies]

Thanks Chris. I'll make those changes for the next release. The GUI is coming along, but I rarely do any GUI work, so its taking me a bit longer than normal to get it done. I hope to have the next release ready in the next day or so.

- Jeff

[jdavies]

Bump!

I have updated the first post with the information on the newest 0.5.0 release.

- Jeff

[duds26]

Hi CC,
The reason you are seeing that is because you are running an older version of Java (1.4_02, as you said). StarBridge is compiled with Java version 1.6. You can download the 1.6 JRE from Sun at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp (click the first download button in the list). Many browsers use Java already, so you may already have 1.6 installed on your system and you just need to update your PATH environment variable to point to the bin/ directory of the Java 1.6 installation folder.

If you have any trouble at all, please let me know. Thanks for copying and pasting the full error message, it really helps.

- Jeff

If you have installed the newest version, check in your program files older for older stuff, it could be that some stuff is left behind.
In the newest 1.6 release11 it should be removed but you never know for sure if you haven't checked it, had a look.

[jdavies]

BUMP

v0.6.0 has been released. See the first post in this thread for details.