🚀 Beyond Earth

Beyond Earth is an immersive, real-time space exploration dashboard built with React. It provides users with a stunning window into the cosmos, featuring live data from NASA, upcoming rocket launches, space news, and interactive solar system visualizations.

✨ Key Features

• 🌌 Dynamic Space Facts:

  • Daily Discoveries: Fetches the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APOD) directly from NASA.
  • Asteroid Watch: Real-time tracking of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) passing by our planet.
  • Curated Trivia: A rotating collection of mind-blowing space facts.

• 🚀 Launch Center:

  • Upcoming Launches: Live countdowns and details for the next 10 scheduled rocket launches worldwide.
  • Mission History: Archive of recent successful missions with video links and manifest details.
  • Data Source: Powered by The Space Devs API.

• 📰 Space News Feed:

  • Stay updated with the latest headlines from Spaceflight News API.
  • Read full articles on recent discoveries, commercial spaceflight, and astronomy.

• 🪐 Solar System Insights:

  • Interactive cards displaying real-time known counts of planets, moons, comets, and asteroids.
  • Detailed "Planet Cards" with physical characteristics (mass, volume, gravity).
  • Age Calculator: Calculate your age on different planets!

• 📸 Mars Rover Gallery:

  • View high-definition images from the Curiosity rover.
  • Interactive modal for detailed photo inspection.

• 🧑‍🚀 People in Space:

  • Live tracker of who is currently in orbit and which craft they are aboard (ISS, Tiangong, etc.).

🎨 UI/UX Highlights

• Immersive Design: Deep space theme with a custom starry background and nebula effects.
• Glassmorphism: Modern, frosted-glass distinct headers and cards.
• Interactive Elements:
  • Hover-responsive cards with subtle glowing borders and lift effects.
  • Animated counters and smooth transitions.
  • Custom "Sci-Fi" scrollbars and typography (Montserrat).

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React.js
• Styling:
  • CSS3 (Custom Animations)
  • Material UI (MUI)
  • React Bootstrap
• State Management: React Hooks (useState, useEffect)
• Routing: React Router v6
• APIs Integrated:
  • NASA APOD API
  • NASA NEO (Near Earth Object) API
  • The Space Devs (Launch Library 2)
  • Spaceflight News API
  • Open Notify (Astronauts)
  • Solar System OpenData

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v14 or higher recommended)
• npm

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/beyond-earth.git
   cd beyond-earth

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

   (Note: This project uses legacy peer dependencies due to some specific UI libraries. If you encounter errors, try npm install --legacy-peer-deps)

3. Start the Application

   npm start

   Open http://localhost:3000 to view it in your browser.

4. (Optional) Start the Backend Server If the project includes a local backend proxy/server for caching:

   # In a separate terminal
   cd beyond-earth-server
   npm install
   node server.js

🔧 Build & Deployment

To build the app for production:

npm run build

This builds the app for production to the build folder. It correctly bundles React in production mode and optimizes the build for the best performance.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions, issues, and feature requests are welcome! Feel free to check the issues page.

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Designed with 💙 for Space Explorers everywhere.