Satellite orbit prediction

[martinber]

Just wanted to write down some things. I don't know if I'm going to do it someday. If done, the following can be done:

• Draw a map overlay
• Paint images blue or green depening on the map overlay
• Export to GeoTIFF: Export each channel as geotiff #6

We need a orbit calculation library:

• One option is to use a C library or similar. E.g. predict. Via C bindings or something else
• I also like the idea of porting the GUI to Python and use the Rust code as a library for the raw image decoding. On Python there are orbit prediction libraries, and further image processing can be done easily. This can create problems on Windows
• Right now the best option is to use the relatively unstable Rust library satellite-rs

Notes:

• Some libraries automatically download the latest TLE
• Allowing to use custom TLE can be useful when decoding images from years ago (by loading old TLE)

Edit:

I'm trying this a bit on the orbit-calculation branch.

Right now the most difficult part is drawing the map. I think the way to go is to draw lines into the image from a shapefile. Useful things I found:

• Read shapefiles with shapefile
• Replace the png library with image and use line_drawing
• Draw the map, maybe using the Python library basemap as a reference

Edit 2:

Mostly done and merged to master!