Realtime telemetry from ISS internal components

https://iss-mimic.github.io/Mimic/

by MontagFTB • 2 years ago

166 48 2 years ago

iss-mimic.github.io

AriedK• 2 years ago

Can anyone explain what the number before the timestamp is? GMT 66 / 43 / 41

ins0• 2 years ago

It's the DayOfTheYear followed by Hours, Minutes and seconds in UTC.

diggan• 2 years ago

Is this the datetime format they use onboard on the ISS or why is it being used in this webui?

This is the first time I come across this particular format, but also never near space-stuff so wouldn't surprise me if they use some specific format for some specific purpose.

dr_kiszonka• 2 years ago

66 could be the day of the year.

mmh00002• 2 years ago

As a date command format string:

```

  $ date -u '+GMT %-j/%R:%S'
    GMT 66/17:05:57

```

orbital-decay2• 2 years ago

This is being used to sync a 1:100 model of ISS with the actual station: https://github.com/ISS-Mimic/Mimic

auto• 2 years ago

This is incredibly cool!

pavinjoseph• 2 years ago

Incredible! I wonder how much delay there is between the sensor data coming in to ISS, being relayed to NASA, fetched by these guys and forwarded to their model's actuators.

close04• 2 years ago

What's the reason behind using the "Off"/"Not-Off" notation for "on-off status" instead of "On"/"Off" or even "On"/"Non-On"? I see some "state" parameters marked as "ON".

the-kenny• 2 years ago

Guessing here: If you have a breaker switch after an additional switch, labelling the breaker with 'on/off' may be misleading as 'on' doesn't necessarily mean the connected device is powered. It may be off because the other switch is off.

wolrah• 2 years ago

Reading this post led to one of those moments of realization about "no shutdown" in Cisco IOS and similar environments.

The config file can't guarantee the interface will be up when it's loaded as that depends on external factors but it can guarantee the interface will not be shut down.

I've used "no shutdown" as an example of illogical UI for decades because it seems backwards as the user, especially when new to IOS and trying to learn by exploring, but from this perspective it makes sense.

gregmac• 2 years ago

Certain controls -- like valves or vent dampers -- are not binary. Even if normal operation is either fully-closed or fully-open, it can technically be anywhere in between.

Having an absolute position sensor would tell you this, but is complex and expensive compared to having two binary state switches (fully-open vs fully-closed) which is also more expensive than a single state switch.

Probably in many cases it just isn't worth it to instrument beyond the single state, especially if the affect of the control is being monitored (eg: flow, temperature, power). However, communicating the state as accurately as possible is important to avoid confusion ("This valve says ON, so that's not the problem" vs "I can see this valve is NOT OFF, but let's double check it's fully-on?").

idiotsecant2• 2 years ago

I am a controls engineer and saying something is CLOSED when it is actually only observed to be NOT OPEN is my personal windmill I tilt at regularly. People have deied before because what the screen said was that the valve is closed, but what the PLC actually observed is that the valve had left the open position, which was the only limit switch present. Maybe the valve is travelling slowly, jammed halfway open, etc. When operators make the complaint you just did I tell them that what I've told them is reality and if they want a true closed we need a closed limit switch.

bmitc3• 2 years ago

This was my first guess, although I do not have explicitly experience in life-or-death type of control systems. In such systems, does it make sense to have more than two states? Something like "open", "unknown but not open", "unknown but not closed", "unknown", "closed"? (Assuming that you have enough limit switches.)

HeyLaughingBoy• 2 years ago

Ugh! I've had to deal with this in a situation where we needed two sensors to tell if an object was present or not, but there was only space for one. So we could tell if the payload was not present, but not if it was.

This meant that we would have to make assumptions like "you (other subsystem) say you had the payload and you gave it to me, and I believe you, but I can't prove that you did until much later in time."

And if it turns out that we weren't actually holding it, then recovering from that state required unwinding a whole series of decisions and actions made some time in the recent past.

Suffice to say, it made error handling for certain cases... challenging!

xtiansimon• 2 years ago

So where is the ‘leaky’ Soyuz module? Haha

proaralyst• 2 years ago

All the leaky Soyuz spacecraft have returned to earth at this point

The coolant leak: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS-22

The air leak: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS-09

verytrivial• 2 years ago

Scott Manley reported three days ago about an apparently current, non-threatening leak https://youtu.be/MZgaLzYFCrU at about the 18 minute mark if you're interested.

Bnichs• 2 years ago

One of those values is "ISS total mass." Is that calculated using launch/deorbit weights or is there some kind of sensor on board that can measure that? I figure if you did a specific type of burn you could calculate the weight from that, but I'm wondering if they have something more clever.

orbital-decay2• 2 years ago

It's just an estimate and isn't that accurate. Yes, the closest you can get is orbit determination before and after the reboosts, and acceleration data.

webdoodle• 2 years ago

The ISS uses Control moment gyroscopes to stabilize it's orientation. Couldn't those be used to calculate its mass?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_moment_gyroscope#Inter...

CoastalCoder2• 2 years ago

Hopefully I'm not embarrassing myself with this question, but:

If you know an satellite's orbital path and velocity, and the Earth's gravitational strength, is that enough to compute the satellite's mass?

martincmartin2• 2 years ago

In a uniform gravitational field, it isn't. On the earth's surface, acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, independent of the mass of the falling object. See Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo%27s_Leaning_Tower_of_P...

pyrolux3• 2 years ago

The mass data is calculated from all the launched mass but I have no idea why it's a telemetry value unless the ISS echoes it back for some reason

Horffupolde• 2 years ago

I assume it’s calculated from the propulsion positioning system.

9dev2• 2 years ago

I'm SO going to build a Grafana dashboard from that!

malux85• 2 years ago

I would love to see that!

9dev2• 2 years ago

So, uh, I actually did. Built a small Prometheus exporter to read the official data stream, and ingest it in Grafana.

Anyone up helping me create all the charts? It’s over 300 of them :D

https://iss-metrics.9dev.de/public-dashboards/bccf319b13ff4b...

franky47• 2 years ago

It has a year field, when would that one be updated? Using UTC?

world2vec• 2 years ago

Which NASA API/data feed is being used to get this telemetry?

axus• 2 years ago

"Several years ago, NASA provided some of the data to the public in order to spur interest in the ISS and space exploration under the ISSlive project (https://isslive.com/) using the lightstreamer service (http://demos.lightstreamer.com/ISSLive/)"

AIorNot• 2 years ago

Cool to see this data still live! And on HN

I was the lead on the ISSLive project that released this at NASA back in 2011 - we used an Ajax light streamer server to serve select (approved) space station telemetry parameters and astronaut schedules and we also Built mobile apps and a 3D website with an immersive Mission Control experience in Unity

Sadly the sites lost funding - but glad to see the IssMimic project and data still available- as a former ISS flight controller I have fond memories of my time there

More details on the original project here: https://youtu.be/xAhw_8B25N0?si=geMXrliwdKkt5fY8

pyrolux3• 2 years ago

ISS mimic team member here - if you're still in the Houston area I'd love to buy you a drink sometime

Thanks for making ISSlive

Realtime telemetry from ISS internal components

Related Stories