Affordable, Portable, Orbital Desktop Satellite Tracker
Zeke’s invention, the “Affordable, Portable, Orbital Desktop Satellite Tracker,” was designed to track satellites, planets and stars. Zeke modeled the tracker in Tinkercad, 3D-printed it, designed the circuit boards in KiCAD and programmed the tracker in C. His prototype uses an accelerometer and magnetometer to measure antenna position. He hopes to have a Desktop Satellite Tracker Kit in every science classroom someday and is excited to share his invention at Teardown 2024!
Zeke Wheeler has been making waves on the engineering circuit. When he was 8 years-old, Zeke began a multi-year project to contact the International Space Station over ham radio using homemade antennas, circuit boards and satellite trackers. Zeke has a popular YouTube channel (@KJ7NLL) where he documents his engineering projects.
When he was 11 years-old, Zeke Wheeler was a featured speaker at two engineering conferences: CadenceLIVE 2023 and DAC (Design Automation Conference) and has been written about in EEJournal. In the fall of 2024 his 5-year mission will finally be fulfilled: he will help students communicate over ham radio with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station via NASA’s educational outreach program ARISS.
Zeke recently won Best of Fair, Middle School, at the Northwest Science Expo, as well as the Lemelson Early Inventor Award for his “Affordable, Portable, Orbital Desktop Satellite Tracker.” He loves to share his projects with the engineering community.
Made possible with generous support from Qorvo.
