Space Debris Simulator

Inspiration

We were inspired by the growing problem of space debris. Thousands of inactive satellites, rocket parts, and fragments orbit Earth, creating collision risks for spacecraft and astronauts

What it does

It's a videogame that gives you the objective to clean up space debris to raise awareness to the growing problem of space debris

How we built it

We used a single Python File and a GUI Module named PyQt6 to make the GUI for our app. We then programmed accurate Newtonian mechanics into the program so that it would display the difficulty of moving rockets.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we wanted to build a software for a spacecraft that can detect space debris, collect it and return to Earth safely for recycling. However, due to the immense difficulty of doing this plus the need for a hardware architecture in the first place, we have to realize our limits to this project and program a game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to turn our original idea into a working game in a limited amount of time. We were also able to implement Newtonian mechanics into the game instead of just making a basic space game, which made the movement of the rockets more realistic and challenging. We are especially proud that we were able to make the project fully functional using just Python and PyQt6.

What we learned

We learned a lot about programming physics and how difficult it can be to turn an idea into an actual working project. We learned how Newtonian mechanics can be applied in a program to simulate realistic movement, and we also improved our Python and GUI development skills. Most importantly, we learned how to manage the scope of a project and adapt our original idea when we realized that it was too ambitious for the time and resources we had.

What's next for Space Debris Simulator

In the future, we want to make the simulator more realistic and expand the game beyond just cleaning up debris. We would like to add more types of space debris, different spacecraft, more challenging missions, and better physics. Eventually, we would also like to return to our original idea of creating a more realistic software simulation for a spacecraft that could detect, capture, and safely remove space debris.

Built With

• aerospace
• pyqt6
• python
• rockets
• spacedebris