Where in the World Is the ISS?

Did you know that it is possible to see the International Space Station (ISS) with the naked eye? It is so large and near to the Earth, that when it is present in the night sky, it is the second-brightest object after the Moon. But it streaks by quickly, and it has to be close to where you are on the planet to be visible. So if you are going to catch a glimpse, you need to be prepared.

That is not especially hard, because NASA publishes the location of the ISS in real-time, and a number of websites make it easy to visualize the space station’s future course. But YouTuber WillsBuilds wanted to track it with more style, and in a more physical way. Toward that goal, he built a globe with a model of the ISS floating above it that represents its actual position at any given time.

To make this happen, WillsBuilds first bought a globe, then cut a hole in the bottom to access the space inside. A 3D-printed base was produced, which contains a servo and a set of gears hidden inside. The gears turn a rod that is inserted into the globe. At the top of that rod is another servo that moves in a direction perpendicular to the first. This servo has an arm attached to it with a magnet at its end, which travels just beneath the surface of the globe.

With these servos, both the latitude and longitude at which the arm points can be controlled. A model of the ISS was then 3D-printed, and a magnet was attached to the bottom of it so that can move in concert with the magnet inside of the globe.

The current latitude and longitude of the ISS is acquired by an ESP32 development board via the Open Notify API. These coordinates are translated into angles that the servos need to be set to. That, in turn, moves the arm (and the ISS model) to the same position as the actual ISS.

While a physical model is certainly not necessary to track the space station, it does make for a nice display piece and a great conversation starter. If you decide to build your own version of this project, be sure to let us know!