Kevin Assen's Space Pointer Picks Out Celestial Objects with the Cutest Little Rocket Ship
3D-printed and powered by an Espressif ESP32-S3, this desk accessory means you'll never have to guess where the ISS is again.
Maker and developer Kevin Assen has been working on a device to keep him more aware on what's going on above his head — using an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller to point a 3D-printed rocket at items of interest in space.
"With this innovative tool you can easily point to different celestial objects and immediately see where they are relative to your location," Assen writes of his creation, dubbed the Space Monitor. "The rocket continuously follows the selected object, so you always know exactly where to look. Space has always fascinated me, which led me to develop the Space Monitor to give everyone, from amateur astronomers to curious stargazers, the opportunity to explore the wonders of the universe in a fun and easy way."
The Space Monitor is a 3D-printed contraption that links an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller module — initially the ESP32-WROOM-32E, later the more powerful ESP32-S3 — to a small color LCD panel, a rotary encoder, and a pair of servos forming a pan-and-tilt mechanism for a small 3D-printed spacecraft. A celestial object — limited to just the sun and moon in the initial version — is selected using the knob and display, and the rocket automatically turns to point to its location in space.
Among the improvements made to the latest incarnation of the Space Monitor are weather-tracking for the user's current location updated in 10-minute intervals, the ability to track both the International Space Station (ISS) and Mars along with the sun and moon, and better battery management. Assen has also revealed plans to add a "plug-and-play sensor," which will automatically detect magnetic north — avoiding the need for the user to accurately align the device in order for the pointer to fulfill its function.
"There’s still plenty in the pipeline," Assen says of the project's ongoing iterative development process. "For now, I’m very pleased with the progress and excited to continue developing further."
More information is available on Assen's blog.