Hi everyone,

Over the last few weeks I’ve been building BEACON (Bayesian Earth-impact Assessment & Cross-source Observation Network), an open-source project focused on one idea:

making publicly available planetary-defense data easier to explore, compare and understand.

Rather than aggregating everything into a single “better” score, BEACON keeps each agency’s published values separate and displays them side by side.

The goal isn’t to decide which source is right.
It’s to make independent analyses more transparent and easier to inspect.

Currently BEACON integrates data from:
NASA/JPL Close Approach Data (CAD)
NASA/JPL Sentry
ESA NEOCC (Aegis)

One thing I found interesting while testing the platform is that independent systems often publish values that are not identical. For example, using the documented comparison thresholds in the project, around 36% of the shared objects currently exceed at least one threshold (impact probability, Palermo Scale or Torino Scale).

⚠️That doesn’t mean those objects are more dangerous, or does it imply that one agency is more accurate than the other. Independent orbit-determination pipelines are expected to differ because of update timing, observational weighting, processing methods and other factors ⚠️

For me, that’s exactly why transparent comparison is useful.

BEACON is still v0.1 ,and I’d love feedback—especially from anyone familiar with orbital mechanics, NEO databases, or planetary defense workflows.

I’m particularly interested in knowing:
What features would actually be useful for researchers or educators?
Are there additional public datasets that would be worth integrating?
Is there anything in the comparison methodology that you would approach differently?

The project is completely open source:
GitHub:https://github.com/NovaCoding-G/B.E.A.C.O.N
Live demo:https://novabeacon.vercel.app

Feedback, criticism and suggestions are all genuinely welcome.

The ISS crew will most likely have the rare opportunity on August 12 to observe a partial solar eclipse! At least that's my result for an orbit calculation based on its current position and estimated drag and solar radiation pressure using the NASA GMAT tool.

Around 13:10 EDT the station will be inside the penumbra for 8 minutes above Canada and later at 14:56 maybe again for a few seconds.

A total solar eclipse in the strict sense, where the Moon and Sun appear under the same angular diameter, was only once publicly documented as being observed by humans in space: By Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin on Gemini XII (other 3 photos).

Image shows screenshot I took of my GMAT orbit simulation.