Balistic v6.0 is a MIT-licensed fire control simulator using NASA SRTM elevation data and a 72-ray horizon scan to produce asymmetric blast polygons, built as Python/Flask + C#/.NET + Redis Streams microservices.
Key Takeaways
Terrain masking uses 90m-resolution SRTM tiles (~5700 tiles, 60°S–60°N); tiles auto-download on first shot per region (~3s), or bulk pre-download (~16GB, ~3h).
Hybrid ballistic model: full Euler+ISA physics for SRBMs, analytic formulas calibrated to SIPRI/CSIS/FAS data for ICBMs/IRBMs; validated against ATACMS, Iskander, Sarmat, Minuteman III.
Nuclear blast radii from Glasstone & Dolan (1977); 195 weapon systems from 30+ countries in externalized weapons_db.json.
Stack: Python 3.10+/Flask for SRTM/API/PDF export, C#/.NET 10 for ballistic processor, Redis 7.x Streams for inter-service queue, Leaflet.js 2D + CesiumJS 3D globe for visualization.
Coriolis deflection, radioactive fallout plumes, cluster munition dispersion, and real-time OpenWeatherMap wind data are all modeled.
Hacker News Comment Review
The single comment captures the project’s tension precisely: technically impressive, contextually uncomfortable given current geopolitical reality.
Notable Comments
@tliltocatl: “as cool as the fact that it is relevant is sad and scary”
