Forum: Models & Toys Topic: ISS Mimic: 3D printed ISS with moving parts
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The ISS outboard truss is constantly rotating, the inboard radiators are moving to position themselves for optimal heat rejection, and the solar arrays are turning to match the sun. The ISS consists of many moving parts but every ISS model in the world is fixed, non-moving, and fails to show just how much activity occurs on the ISS every day. All of this information and more is streamed live from the ISS constantly as "telemetry" (viewable here).

Mimic uses a Raspberry Pi to receive the telemetry from the ISS, display the ISS data in informative ways, and transmit commands to the microcontrollers which drive the truss, solar arrays, and radiators. The Raspberry Pi software is available to download as a pre-configured image and can be used on it's own to view the current status of the ISS.

The ISS is far away and only appears as a bright light moving through the sky, disconnected from most people, even those who work on the ISS program. The ISS belongs to the world but most people aren't connected to it.

The Mimic project hopes to change that by providing the software, instructions, and 3D printing files for free to everyone. We hope to use this project to connect more people to the ISS. We also hope to get other people involved in helping finish/improve the software and helping make the project more affordable.

We need your help! Whether you are a maker, programmer, educator, space enthusiast, astronaut, or anyone else, we'd like your feedback! We are always looking for ways to lower the project cost and improve the software. Please visit our github and join our discord.