About
There has being alot of interest around space ever since the space race was started in 1955. Equipments and materials to communicate with satellites especially low earth orbit (LEO) satellites have being expensive and inaccessible. These satellites (both natural and artificial) move really fast across the sky. Hand tracking becomes tedious and tiring. Solar panels also need to follow the sun across the sky for increasing its efficiency.
This is where satRot comes in. SatRot takes everyone interested into the domain of the amateur satellite observation and communication community.
SatRot is a very cheap, modular and smart satellite rotator. It has the ability to automatically and manually control a load device such as an antenna for satellite communications, solar panel to track sun, telescope to observe patch of the night sky and others. The construction materials are so cheap and easy to build that high school students can DIY build the system.
The GUI has 2 main modes. A manual mode that a user can use to manually track a celestrial body using a mouse on the system. This provides a solid flexiblity for search and observation of the sky. The second mode is the automatic mode. This mode allows the user to set the rotator to track a satellite whenever the satellite comes into range. This can be used to automatically transmit or receive information from satellite when it rises and before setting. This uses a kernal interrupt so as not to monopolize CPU resources. This provides users with the ability to search and predict which and when satellites are coming over their location anywhere on earth.
- Can be used to track fast moving satellites. Especially those in LEO with short fly by times.
- Solar panel can be mounted to track the sun and increase its efficiency
- Can be used as a teaching aid for young students about satellite technologies
- Telescope can be mounted on it and used to track a celestrial body in the sky
- Tracking the ISS and the activities on-board becomes possible
- When Starlink becomes fully operational, SatRot could be used to gain internet access anywhere in the world.
SatRot is for anyone interested in the realm of satellite technology, telecommunications, amateur radio, application of raspberry pi. In short, anyone is free to join, use and participate in the SatRot project.
SatRot - Taking everyone to space!!!