Heritage in Space is an active catalogue and real-time 3D map of multinational objects in Earth orbit and in proximity to other astronomical bodies, visualised using WebGL Space-Track and ESA’s DISCOS repository alongside supplementary tracking data provided by ESA’s TASC and NASA’s Horizons services. The platform has been developed by the Beyond the Earth foundation using public engagement funding kindly provided by the Europlanet planetary science consortium.

This index is consolidated as an active-document open for communal input in order to initially peer-identify and track off-world infrastructure that may be the focus of future international heritage protection policies within formal registries. All nominated objects are categorised under extended heritage definitions initially established by the principles of the Burra Charter.

Soundtrack ‘Your Outer World’ kindly provided by CO.AG Music.

Earth index

The present Earth index and visualisation is assembled as a tool for the peer-identification and subsequent tracking of historic artefacts in geocentric orbit which exhibit ‘significance’ for space archaeology studies. This experimental platform intends to collate public nominations, memories and oral histories of satellite infrastructure with the intention of thereafter ascertaining whether these distinguished objects may feasibly be preserved in-situ in compliance with inter-agency debris mitigation guidelines for GSO and LEO regions. The interactive platform is based on coding from the stuffin.space website (see; Debris) and updates daily with orbital data from Space-Track and DISCOS in conjunction with the excellent satellite.js JavaScript library to calculate satellite positions from TLE files. Additional tracking resources have been acquired from The Sky Live. The present catalogue details significant objects arising from the first 40 years of space exploration (1957 – 1997).

Mars, Moon, Venus, Mercury Indices

These visualisations independently document items of space heritage (historic and contemporary hardware) that are estimated to remain in orbit around other astronomical bodies or reside on the surface of these celestial objects. These visualisations update daily using data provided by ESA’s TASC and NASA’s Horizons services. For an elaborated Luna index, see the For All Moonkind registry.

Participate & Contact

Contact: info [at] beyondtheearth.org