Artemisee

Interactive 3D visualization of NASA's Artemis program missions, built with React Three Fiber and real JPL Horizons ephemeris data. Track Artemis II live or replay Artemis I.

Features

3D Visualization

• Real trajectory data from JPL Horizons API (Artemis II: -1024, Artemis I: -1023)
• 3D Earth, Moon, and Orion spacecraft with correct positions
• ISS marker — live International Space Station position in the 3D scene
• Hermite spline interpolation for smooth 60fps animation between 30-minute data points
• Moon position computed client-side via astronomy-engine
• Earth rotation synced to Greenwich Apparent Sidereal Time
• Celestial direction markers, moon orbit, ecliptic ring, J2000 axis guides

Mission Control

• Mission selector — switch between Artemis II (live) and Artemis I (replay)
• Playback controls — play/pause, speed (1x to 1h/s), jump to now or restart replay
• Camera presets — Overview, Earth, Moon, Orion with smooth transitions
• DSN status — live Deep Space Network antenna tracking (polls every 10s)
• Mission stats — distance from Earth/Moon, speed, light-time delay, MET

Live Data Feeds

• Space news — aggregated from SpaceNews, NASASpaceflight, Space.com via Spaceflight News API
• Space weather — solar wind speed/density, magnetic field, Kp index from NOAA SWPC
• DONKI alerts — CMEs, solar flares, geomagnetic storms from NASA
• APOD — NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Upcoming launches — from Launch Library 2
• EPIC Earth imagery — full-disc Earth photos from DSCOVR L1

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
3D rendering	React Three Fiber + drei
Celestial math	astronomy-engine
Data fetching	@tanstack/react-query
State	zustand
API proxy	Express
Build	Vite + TypeScript

Quick Start

1. Clone and install

git clone https://github.com/w00jay/artemisee.git
cd artemisee
npm install

2. Configure the API proxy

Copy the example environment file and set your API server address:

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env to set VITE_API_URL (defaults to http://localhost:4001)

3. Start the API server

The API server proxies requests to JPL Horizons (which blocks browser CORS) and the DSN Now XML feed.

# Run on the same machine:
npm run server

# Or with auto-reload:
npm run server:watch

If running the API server on a different machine, update VITE_API_URL in .env and ensure the port is accessible.

4. Start the frontend

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173

5. Run tests

npm test

Architecture

Browser (Vite :5173)              API Server (:4001)
┌──────────────────┐              ┌──────────────────────────┐
│  React Three     │   /api/*     │  Express                 │
│  Fiber scene     │ ──────────── │  ├─ /horizons            │ ──► JPL Horizons
│  + UI overlay    │  (proxied)   │  ├─ /dsn                 │ ──► DSN Now XML
│  + zustand store │              │  ├─ /v1/news             │ ──► Spaceflight News API
│  + live feeds    │              │  ├─ /v1/weather          │ ──► NOAA SWPC
│                  │              │  ├─ /v1/apod             │ ──► NASA APOD
│                  │              │  ├─ /v1/launches         │ ──► Launch Library 2
│                  │              │  ├─ /v1/epic             │ ──► NASA EPIC (DSCOVR)
│                  │              │  ├─ /v1/donki            │ ──► NASA DONKI
│                  │              │  └─ /v1/iss              │ ──► ISS position
└──────────────────┘              └──────────────────────────┘

• Frontend fetches trajectory data once, caches it, and interpolates at 60fps
• astronomy-engine computes Moon position and Earth rotation client-side (no API needed)
• API server caches all external API responses with appropriate TTLs (5–60 min)
• Mission replay — completed missions use infinite cache and no refetching

Data Sources

Source	API	Data
JPL Horizons	REST	Spacecraft ephemeris
DSN Now	XML	Antenna tracking status
astronomy-engine	Local	Moon/planet positions, sidereal time
Spaceflight News API	REST	Aggregated space news
NOAA SWPC	JSON	Solar wind, Kp index
NASA DONKI	REST	CMEs, flares, storms
NASA APOD	REST	Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA EPIC	REST	Full-disc Earth imagery
Launch Library 2	REST	Upcoming launches
Where The ISS At	REST	ISS position
NASA AROW	—	Official real-time tracker

Coordinate System

The scene uses J2000 Earth-Centered Inertial (ECI) coordinates transformed to Three.js (Y-up):

ECI Axis	Three.js	Direction
X	X	Vernal equinox
Y	-Z	90° east in equatorial plane
Z	Y	North celestial pole

Positions are scaled so 1 unit = 1 Earth radius (6,371 km). The Moon orbits at ~60 units.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Trajectory data from NASA/JPL is public domain. This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by NASA or JPL.

Image Credits

• Earth texture: Blue Marble Next Generation — NASA Visible Earth
• Moon texture: LROC Color Map — NASA Scientific Visualization Studio / Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
• Orion spacecraft sprite: NASA/JSC render — public domain