[Kstars-devel] Could Kstars plot man-made satellite orbits?

[Jay Sherman]

Greetings,

Let me first say that I am blown away by the scope, sophistication, and
sheer fun of this application.  You folks have created something  truly
wonderful.

Wired magazine just had an article on a group of individuals who monitor and
catalog the orbits of all man-made satellites, including un-announced intel
launches, visible space debri, etc.  The site "heavens-above.com" developed
by Chris Peat has a very neat interface to all this data, including a nice
sky map application showing current satellite activity visible above any
geographic location.

Are there any plans to include the orbits of man-made satellites as part of
Kstars?  All the required data could probably be provided fairly easily, and
in a standard/usable format by Mr. Peat (although I shouldn't speak for him
- glancing at his site it's apparent the orbital data has to be standardized
and portable.)

This feature may be already in the works, but if it's not, and if it's
feasable to implement, I'd bet a lot of people would love it.

Thanks for listening and thanks for Kstars.

James Sherman
jsherman999 at gmail.com
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