ISS Photo Explorer

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My entry for the 2015 NASA Space Apps Challenge
The crew of the International Space Station over the last 43 missions and almost 15 years have taken more than 1.6 million photographs and each one is tagged with the location (latitude/longitude) where it was captured. This data along with the photographs are freely available via the generosity of NASA.
The nadir point for each location is plotted in 3D at a distance from the earth representing the average altitude (354km) of the ISS and colored based on the mission number
Initially conceived as a fun way to visualize each of these locations, the idea evolved into a browser based WebGL application that enables the user to view and bookmark photographs via an intuitive 3D user interface.
The aim for my participation in the 2015 Space Apps Challenge is to create a working system using real data and publish it online so people can experiment with it. The essential features will be functioning as designed and the application will feel responsive on desktop browsers that support the technology in use.
At a later stage, the long list of planned enhancements will be tackled and the project will hopefully become a valuable tool for exploration of this amazing resource. See the Future section for more details

	Click the Window Switch icon to swap the globe and photograph windows - useful if you would rather see large images and small controls. Important: Large images are requested when the windows are swapped because of the extra space and that may be slow to load for some people
	Click the Full Screen icon to switch to a full screen view. Press the Escape key to return to normal afterwards
	Click the Share icon to open the currently selected photo/location in a new window with a URL that you can be bookmarked or shared with your friends
	Click the Goto ISS icon to rotate the globe to the current location of the ISS and see the closest photo to it
	Click the Twitter button to Tweet the current mission and photograph to your time line

Mission Selector and Options