Solar Simulator

By: Travis Scott, Robbie Kruszynski, Ryan McLean, Slater Smith, and Ian Cook Westgate

View the site live at Icarus Lives

Description

The Solar System Simulator was designed with two goals in mind.

First, use the three.js Javascript 3D library to depict a visually stunning and responsive reproduction of the solar system.
Second, utilize the International Space Station's (ISS) API to showcase its current location in orbit around Earth.

Using your terminal, clone this repo by inputting git clone https://github.com/travisty12/solar-simulator.git.
Navigate to the folder in the terminal by typing in: cd solar-simulator.
In your terminal, if you intend to view the code and want to make the React pages more legible, enter apm install react, and open the file with atom ..
In your terminal, enter npm install to install necessary dependencies.
Then enter npm run start to view the project, which will be opened in a new browser tab.

The solar system is visually depicted on the screen. This includes all planets, the sun, Earth's moon, Europa, and the ISS
The user can use their mousewheel along with clicking and dragging on the screen in order to change the camera distance and orientation.
The user on mobile can touch / pinch / drag on the screen in order to change the camera distance and orientation.
There are visual rings to demonstrate the planets' orbits and to help guide the eye to locate the planets when zoomed out.
The user can view the ISS's position in orbit around Earth, updated every 5 seconds from wheretheissat API.
The user can select the different planets in the upper-left header menu to navigate to any planet or the sun.
The user can view educational content about any selected planet or the sun by clicking the top-right menu (i) icon.
Accurate rotational speed for the earth (24h) and moon ( 28 days around the earth ), and accurate orbital speeds for all of the planets.
Use Redux to update the information that is displayed depending on the planet your on.

This software is licensed under the MIT license.