🌌 Horizon API Explorer

The Ultimate Unofficial Interface for NASA JPL Horizons

A modern, visual, human-first dashboard for NASA’s JPL Horizons System.
Mission-grade data — without mission-grade pain.

🌍 Live Demo · 🐞 Report Bug · ✨ Request Feature

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🚀 What Is This?

Horizon API Explorer is a full-featured web interface for the
NASA JPL Horizons System — the same system used by NASA engineers, astronomers, and mission planners to compute:

• Planetary positions
• Spacecraft trajectories
• Orbital elements
• Near-Earth object encounters

This project does not replace Horizons.
It unlocks it.

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🧠 Why This Exists

NASA Horizons is one of the most powerful scientific tools ever built — and one of the least approachable.

The problems:

• Command-line & telnet-era UX
• Cryptic parameter syntax
• No real-time validation
• No visualization
• Extremely steep learning curve

The goal:

Make authoritative space data usable by humans, not just engineers.

Horizon API Explorer keeps the science intact and fixes the experience.

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🧑‍🚀 Who This Is For

Audience	Why It’s Useful
Students	Learn orbital mechanics visually
Educators	Teach using real NASA data
Amateur astronomers	Plan observations
Researchers	Generate ephemerides quickly
Engineers	State vectors & SPK kernels
Developers	Programmatic Horizons access

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🌠 What You Can Do

🔭 Explore the Entire Solar System

• 1.2M+ asteroids
• 3,900+ comets
• 290+ moons
• All planets & dwarf planets
• 200+ spacecraft
• Lagrange points & barycenters

📊 Generate Professional Outputs

• Observer ephemeris (RA/DEC, Az/El, magnitude)
• Cartesian state vectors
• Osculating orbital elements
• Close-approach tables (NEOs)
• SPICE SPK binary files

📦 Export & Share

• JSON
• CSV
• PDF
• Binary .bsp

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✨ Feature Matrix

Feature	Route	Description
Object Search	/search	Search by name, ID, designation
Observer Ephemeris	/observer	Sky position tables
State Vectors	/vectors	Position & velocity
Orbital Elements	/elements	Keplerian parameters
Close Approaches	/approach	NEO flybys
SPK Generator	/spk	SPICE kernels
Query History	/history	Local saved queries

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🎨 UI & Design Philosophy

• 🌌 Space-themed visuals (starfield, gradients)
• 🧊 Glassmorphism cards
• 🪐 Subtle 3D hover effects
• 🌙 Dark-mode first (astronomy optimized)
• ⚡ Fast, responsive, zero lag

UX rule:

Never hide the science — only remove friction.

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🛠️ Technologies Used

Core Framework

• React 18 — component-driven UI
• TypeScript 5.8 — strict type safety
• Vite — instant dev & fast builds

UI & Styling

• Tailwind CSS — utility-first styling
• shadcn/ui + Radix UI — accessible components
• Lucide Icons — consistent iconography
• Next Themes — dark/light mode

Data & State

• TanStack React Query — server-state caching
• React Hook Form — complex forms
• Zod — schema validation
• React Router — client-side routing

Tooling

• ESLint — code quality
• PostCSS — CSS processing
• SWC — fast compilation
• GitHub Actions — CI/CD

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🏗️ How This Is Built (Architecture)

graph LR
  UI[React UI] --> Query[React Query]
  Query --> Client[Horizons API Client]
  Client --> Proxy[CORS Proxy]
  Proxy --> NASA[NASA JPL Horizons API]

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Why a CORS Proxy?

NASA’s API is not browser-accessible. The proxy allows safe, read-only access with no data modification.

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📖 How To Use (Step-by-Step)

1️⃣ Search an Object

• Go to /search
• Enter name, ID, or designation (Mars, 433, 1P/Halley)
• Select from suggestions

2️⃣ Generate Data

Choose a module:

• Observer → sky positions
• Vectors → position & velocity
• Elements → orbital parameters
• Approach → close encounters
• SPK → binary kernels

3️⃣ Configure Parameters

• Time range
• Observer location
• Reference frames
• Output units
• Correction models

4️⃣ Export or Share

• Download results
• Reuse previous queries via History

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✏️ How To Modify / Extend

Add a New Feature Page

1. Create page in src/pages/
2. Add route in App.tsx
3. Create form schema (Zod)
4. Call Horizons client
5. Render output

Modify API Parameters

• Edit src/lib/horizons-api.ts
• Parameters map 1:1 with NASA docs

Customize UI

• Tailwind config → tailwind.config.js
• Components → src/components/ui/

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🚀 Local Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn

git clone https://github.com/maruf009sultan/Horizon-API-Explorer.git
cd Horizon-API-Explorer
npm install
npm run dev

Open → http://localhost:8080

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🌍 Deployment Guide

Vercel / Netlify

• Import repo
• Set build command: npm run build
• Output: dist

Docker

docker build -t horizon-api-explorer .
docker run -p 3000:3000 horizon-api-explorer

Environment Variables

VITE_HORIZONS_PROXY=https://proxi.jammesop007.workers.dev

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⚡ Performance Principles

• Minimal bundle size
• Aggressive caching
• Progressive disclosure
• No unnecessary abstractions

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🗺️ Roadmap

• Saved presets & sessions
• Multilingual UI
• Educational walkthroughs
• Optional authentication

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🤝 Contributing

This project values:

• Clean code
• Clear UX
• Scientific integrity

Fork → Branch → Code → Lint → PR

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📜 License

MIT — free for personal, educational, research & commercial use.

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🌌 Final Note

Horizon API Explorer exists because space data should not be painful.

Same NASA data. Better human experience.