Eyes on Earth
Eyes on Earth
Eyes on Earth is a 24-hour simulation of the 3,000+ satellites that are orbiting and observing our planet on a daily basis.
In Eyes on Earth, 24 hours has been condensed down to 24 seconds and includes a full day-night cycle of the earth’s rotation. Each type of satellite is represented by a different color.
🔵 = Internet Satellites providing connectivity to the most remote regions.
🟠 = Imaging Satellites providing high-resolution photos for the maps and navigation tools we use every day.
🟡.= International Space Station providing scientific research as it circles the globe every 93 minutes.
🟣 = Global Positioning Systems (GPS) providing navigation as we explore and navigate our world.
🟢 = Communication Satellites providing the line of sight signals for television, telephones, radio, and the military.
🔴 = Weather Satellites providing atmosphere, temperature, and precipitation information as well as tracking weather systems like hurricanes and tropical storms.
All of these satellites in the animation have orbits from NORAD data available on a website called Celestrak. The orbit data has been compiled and pushed into cached render files in Blender thanks to the help of jasmeet0915 who published code on GitHub to assist with the process. The music track is an original creation by Justin “Dunna” McDonough, a music producer and creator from Edmonton, Canada.
This animation represents hundreds of hours of studying satellite orbits, compiling data, troubleshooting code, modeling, and animating in Blender. It represent my first 3D animation to be minted as an original 1/1 NFT on the Ethereum Blockchain and is available for purchase on Foundation.