NASA API Data Exploration Project

Overview

This project demonstrates how to interact with NASA's public APIs to fetch and analyze data. Specifically, it covers two main use cases:

1. Fetching and displaying the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
2. Retrieving data on near-Earth objects (asteroids) using the NeoWs (Near-Earth Object Web Service) and processing it for analysis.

By working on this project, you will learn how to consume data from public APIs, handle JSON responses, process and clean the data, and save your results to a file. The project is implemented in Python using popular libraries such as Requests, Pandas, and Matplotlib.

Features

• Fetch and display the Astronomy Picture of the Day using NASA's APOD API.
• Enhanced code to handle both images and other media types (e.g., videos).
• Fetch information about near-Earth objects (asteroids) from NASA's NeoWs API.
• Create clean, structured DataFrames with key details about each asteroid.
• Export processed data to CSV files for easy sharing and further analysis.
• Demonstrates robust error handling and modular coding practices.

Technologies Used

• Python: Main programming language for the project.
• Requests: To handle HTTP requests to the NASA APIs.
• Pandas: For data processing and manipulation.
• Matplotlib: To display images in the notebook.
• PIL (Python Imaging Library): To handle image processing.

Prerequisites

Before running the project, ensure you have the following installed:

• Python 3
• requests library
• pandas library
• matplotlib library
• PIL (Pillow) library

You can install the necessary dependencies using:

pip install requests pandas matplotlib pillow

Setup Instructions

1. Get Your NASA API Key:

   • Visit the NASA Open APIs portal.
   • Sign up to get your API key. This key is required to make requests to the NASA services.

2. Clone the Repository:

   git clone https://github.com/cliffordnwanna/NASA_API_EDA
   cd NASA_API_EDA

3. Configure the Project:

   • Open the project code and replace the placeholder YOUR_API_KEY_HERE with your actual API key:

     API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE"

4. Run the Script: Execute the script to see the Astronomy Picture of the Day and fetch data on near-Earth objects:

   python NASA API Data Exploration Project

Project Structure

nasa-api-exploration/
│
├── README.md           # Project description and setup instructions
├── nasa_project.py     # Main script with all functionalities
└── requirements.txt    # List of required Python packages

Usage

1. Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

This module will fetch the Astronomy Picture of the Day and display it:

• The script first requests the APOD from the NASA API.
• It checks if the returned media is an image; if so, it displays it.
• If the media type is not an image (e.g., a video), it provides a message to the user.

2. Fetching Near-Earth Object (Asteroid) Data

• The script retrieves a list of near-Earth objects from the NeoWs API.
• The information fetched includes Asteroid ID, name, minimal estimated diameter, absolute magnitude, and relative velocity.
• After processing, the data is saved to a CSV file named asteroid_data.csv.

Sample Output

APOD

Asteroid Data Preview

Asteroid ID	Asteroid Name	Minimal Estimated Diameter (km)	Absolute Magnitude	Relative Velocity (km/s)
123456	Apophis	0.37	19.2	5.6

Error Handling

The script includes error handling for:

• Network failures: Will alert you if the API request fails due to a network issue.
• Invalid API Key: Will notify you if the provided API key is incorrect.
• Non-image APOD content: Will display an appropriate message if the content returned is not an image.

Future Enhancements

• Add support for more NASA APIs, such as Mars Rover Photos and Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).
• Implement a graphical user interface (GUI) for easier interaction.
• Automate daily fetching and storing of APOD and asteroid data using scheduled tasks (cron jobs).

Contributions

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request with improvements.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contact

For any inquiries or issues, please contact:

• Name: Chukwuma Nwanna
• Email: nwannachumaclifford@gmail.com