Would anyone else be interested in mapping SatNOGS IDs to Wikidata QIDs?
I’ve looked at utilizing the Mix-n-Match tool for matching SatNOGS IDs to Wikidata QIDs and think it could be a pretty slick process. Another related topic it getting something like wikidata_id added as a key/value in the DB schema, identifier is already defined and mapped in the MetaSat vocabulary. A subsequent project would be to add Wikidata items for the various satellites not current represented in Wikidata, which is likely a large percentage at present.
Anyhow, I’d love to chat with anyone interested and able to make this happen.
MetaSat IDs are already mapped to SatNOGS IDs. So through MetaSat, SatNOGS IDs have actually been mapped to Wikidata QIDs (since late 2020). The crosswalk between MetaSat and SatNOGS is still under development, however, and we still need to publish it online. I’m working on a draft of it now and will put a link to it here when done.
I’m also interested in a project that would create QIDs for spacecraft not yet in Wikidata. If there isn’t a Wikipedia page for a spacecraft already then the likelihood of it having a QID is very low (although there are some exceptions). In general, there are rarely any QIDs for small sats.
Maybe one place for us to start would be to import existing spacecraft IDs (i.e., NORAD/COSPAR IDs) through existing catalogs (like SatNOGS, Nanosats, GCAT, Gunter’s, Michael Swartwout’s CubeSat DB, etc.) into Mix’n’Match. MetaSat IDs could then be used to describe these spacecraft once they have their own QIDs in Wikidata. To start I went ahead and added MetaSat to the list of catalogs not yet in Mix’n’Match (here).
Does this approach seem feasible given Mix’n’Match’s functionality? I’m sure there are many routes to getting this done.
Just a quick note… until now the id we used in SatNOGS DB for satellites was the NORAD ID, however we are going to introduce soon the Satellite Identifier (already in db-dev and soon in production) to fix any issues that NORAD ID has introduced.
@daniel.chivvis, that’s great news! I was going to propose that we get a property for MetaSat but you’ve already done that part!
Let’s start with with the import of NORAD/COSPAR IDs and match in Mix’n’Match. How would you like to organize our work? Are their any MetaSat specific web communities besides the forum I should be plugged into for collaborating?
Hmm. There are a few places we could potentially start to mine NORAD IDs from. In-The-Sky.org comes to mind. We could also try using Mix’n’Match with CelesTrak. Maybe reaching out to a maintainer at one of those sites (like T.S. Kelso) would be useful. Let me ask around.
Hey @todrobbins , I still haven’t heard back from In-The-Sky but I think CelesTrak has the most complete list of NORAD IDs for us to use. Its catalog has entries spanning from Sputnik to missions launched yesterday. Should we get started?