21–30 of 35 posts
Also, when will the camera be operational and online so we can watch? I can't find any information on their actual website about this.
I got curious about how a company had done a deal to put a camera on ISS and sell the pictures for profit so I started Googling. It looks like they basically did a deal with RSC Energia and the Russian Federal Space Agency. However, what's far more interesting is what I found out about how UrtheCast raised the money to make this happen. UrtheCast started out as a privately-held (i.e. pre-IPO) startup company called E…
Awesome. Imagine if we had a HD camera on every gps satellite and were capable of creating a full 3D texture of the earth in real time.
I got curious about how a company had done a deal to put a camera on ISS and sell the pictures for profit so I started Googling. It looks like they basically did a deal with RSC Energia and the Russian Federal Space Agency. However, what's far more interesting is what I found out about how UrtheCast raised the money to make this happen. UrtheCast started out as a privately-held (i.e. pre-IPO) startup company called E…
Doesnt sound like CIA run front at all, no no no.
It's a great interview if you are looking for details on the technical details of the project. Here's a sample:
GT: There are two cameras. One is a classic, push-broom,
medium-resolution, four-band imager. It is built for space
with our partner Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).
They had this camera available, it could be built
relatively inexpensively, it isn’t particularly large, and
it is made for space, so it became a good fit. At the
altitude at which the space station flies it gives you a
5.5 meter pixel size on the ground or ground sampling
distance (GSD).
The other thing that made this project possible is that
RSC Energia and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, had
already decided to experiment with a camera on the ISS.
They had defined the experiment, rolled it all up, and
obtained the approval of all the partners, but had not
decided what the camera would be. So, when we came along,
they loved the idea, and they already had, essentially, a
programmatic way to enable it immediately. They had also
developed a very high accuracy pointing platform that can
point to plus or minus 175 degrees in each of two axes,
which means that you can steer it to track a point on the
ground. You can also flip it up and look at space targets.
Once this project got traction with them — and they liked
it a lot — they had a competition to decide who would get
to use their pointing platform. We participated and they
decided to give the platform to our project. We are very
happy about that. That’s what enabled the video cam.
We are typically able to track a spot on the ground for a
minute and a half and take video or images. To make it
work and get good resolution you need to have that kind of
pointing system. To build it from scratch would have been
quite expensive. The video camera has an aperture of 32
centimeters, so it is essentially an astronomy telescope.
It was built by an American company and over the past year
has been ruggedized, so that it is suitable for space. The
manufacturer already had the parts for this telescope
because they built one for another customer and had some
spare parts that we were able to buy right away. We were
able to put it on a test stand to check it for vibration
and work out whether it was possible to make it suitable
for space, which we confirmed last summer. So, very
quickly that gave us a telescope of the right size and
performance and at the right price point for our project.
As for the detector, we are are using a commercial 18
MegaPixel detector from a professional grade DSLR camera
that we have radiation tested to ensure it will work in
space. The camera electronics is built by RAL, who are
leveraging their extensive know-how and technology they
have developed for the numerous other optical instruments
they built for space. There is nothing really special
about the technology, other than that we couldn’t do a
NASA-style development costing many tens of millions of
dollars. It is a commercial project and it has to be
affordable.Via G+[1]:
International Space Station Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) began a planned 6-hour spacewalk from the Earth-facing Pirs Docking Compartment at 9 a.m. EST.
Kotov is performing his sixth spacewalk. This is Ryazanskiy's third spacewalk. Both cosmonauts are wearing Russian Orlan suits with blue stripes. Their suits are equipped with NASA helmet cameras to provide close-up views of the work they are performing outside the station. Kotov's helmet camera displays the number 18, and Ryazanskiy's displays the number 20. The duo also will be wearing a GoPro cameras on their forearms. Kotov will have a single strip of yellow tape around his GoPro camera, and Ryazanskiy will have two strips on his camera.
This is the 178th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance.
The spacewalking duo's task is to attempt again to install a pair of high fidelity cameras on a platform attached to the Zvezda Service Module as part of a commercial arrangement between Roscosmos and a Canadian company to downlink Earth observation imagery. During their previous spacewalk on Dec. 27, Russian flight controllers were unable to receive telemetry from the cameras and instructed the spacewalking cosmonauts to bring the cameras back inside the Russian airlock. While outside the orbiting complex, Kotov and Ryazanskiy also plan to retrieve an experiment package housed on Zvezda's hull.
Flight controllers at the Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside of Moscow, are providing primary support for the spacewalk and coordinating with Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
NASA Television is providing live coverage of the spacewalk at http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
This is absolutely fascinating. I can't wait to see the imagery but at least from the samples (even though they state its a simulation) will it be any more interesting that what we see from google's satellite imagery? Also, when will the camera be operational and online so we can watch? I can't find any information on their actual website about this.
back on topic, this is worthless for this... remember that the space station only goes over the same path every time. ...i think you would only get images of the equator or something.
Awesome. Imagine if we had a HD camera on every gps satellite and were capable of creating a full 3D texture of the earth in real time.
Well, keep in mind that GPS satellites are about 50 times further from the surface of the Earth than the ISS.
Awesome. Imagine if we had a HD camera on every gps satellite and were capable of creating a full 3D texture of the earth in real time.