Building NASA’s WeatherSats AR App
April 20, 2025Project Background
In 2022 I joined NASA’s WeatherSats AR project when the app was roughly halfway complete. The goal: give visitors an immersive way to explore Earth‑observing satellites through augmented reality.
My Role
My first responsibility was to ensure the satellite AR models rendered and animated correctly across both iOS and Android. I also implemented several UI updates—improving touch gestures, information panels, and overall usability.
Stabilising the Codebase
The build I inherited contained numerous bugs. I spent significant time tracing issues— especially in the scene‑loader logic—and fixing defects to make the app production‑ready. Memory leaks, incorrect prefab references, and broken asset‑bundle links were all resolved.
Technology Stack
Unity 2021 LTS with C# scripts drives the entire experience. Unity’s cross‑platform workflow let us target iOS and Android from the same project, and the AR Foundation package provided a single API layer over ARKit and ARCore.
What Came Next
Since that engagement I’ve taken on additional Unity contracts, working on AR experiences and video‑game projects that required custom algorithm work. I enjoy creating cross‑platform apps in Unity and look forward to future challenges.
