Posted 06.24.2011 at 3:49 pm
14 Comments
Hurricane Ivan From Space
via Wikimedia Commons
Only a lucky few have ever seen what Earth looks like from space, with human impacts all but invisible and the blackness of space just beyond the horizon. Soon, everyone will have a view, via the Internet and a pair of cameras flying on the International Space Station.
A Canadian company called UrtheCast (don’t ask us why it’s spelled this way) arranged a deal with Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, to bring two cameras to the International Space Station sometime later this year, where they will be mounted on the exterior. The video will be downlinked to Earth and broadcast online.
One camera will shoot in high-definition, with a frame rate of 3.25 fps, and another will broadcast in lower resolution, offering a three-color image. It will provide the first high-definition continuous video footage of Earth, according to Scott Larson, co-founder and president of UrtheCast, in a promotional video.
The system will work as a sort of mashup between Google Earth and YouTube, Larson says, connecting live footage with maps and other capabilities. Users will be able to pause, rewind and zoom, and view specific times and locations — so long as the ISS was passing overhead at the time.
The camera is made by a UK firm and a Canadian company that worked on the shuttle’s robotic arm provided the software support. UrtheCast is based in Calgary.
UrtheCast hopes to launch the cameras later this year and start broadcasting by early 2012. Watch the dramatic trailer below.
[via Digital Journal]
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Excellent! Now we can watch Armageddon as it happens, in glorious staccato HD.
This is cool! Finally some way to see what the astronauts see! Though I doubt the lower resolution one will be used much. Quite the opposite for the HD one!!!
POP SCI ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So wait, is the HD one black and white only? I'd assume both are in color, but then why does this specify that the lower resolution camera will be a 3-color image?
Even if it is though, 1-meter resolution is still a pretty darn good view. We should be able to see traffic on the roads, allowing engineers to locate bottlenecks for morning traffic, and solve those where they can rather than having to simply widen a road. Sometimes just one intersection is the difference between smooth driving and a traffic jam.
UrtheCast? easily understood, YouAreTheCast. Why would someone have to ask why it's spelled that way? lol. UrtheCast=EarthCast=YouAreTheCast=You are the Earth. Too hard for some I guess...you know who Ur....
Later this year...somehow I don't think they mean before the 4th of July. Too bad. I wonder if we'll be able to check out places like China or Saudi Arabia.
This is awesome!! Too bad we have to wait a year before we can spy on people
this is the coolest yet scariest thing ive ever seen..
I'm thinking this is a well hidden step towards arming our satellites with lasers (Hammer of Dawn anyone?) or ICBM's... Either that, or say hello to a new world of porn :)
Wait a second. I can't believe I'm the first one to post something about this. One meter resolution? So who's to say they won't be watching me, or you, while your doing something you're not supposed to ;) Talk about the line from Joe Dirt "I can see down your shirt" and take it to the extreme, no more skinny dipping in your thought to be "private" pool without the risk of all eyes on you.
No doubt this is going to be awesome, I'm very interested in seeing what this is capable of.
@ Onihikage
I think the point they were making was that they would stream in HD quality, but at a relatively low frame rate (3.25fps)where as the other feed would be full frame rate but only in three colours, opposed to the millions of colours in the HD stream... I think!
Sounds like a cool plan, wonder who gets to choose what to look at? I doubt they'll be looking at traffic jams though!
I also love it when people worry about being spied on, as if there is anything in their hum-drum lives that would be of any interest to anyone other than their mothers..
Oh my mom watches that soap, "As the World Turns" I think is the name....
I have to think the output will be filtered/censored by the military for certain areas of the globe. Ever wondered why you can't find any Navy carrier groups at sea on Google Earth? There is a good reason.
the reason why the feed is so slow is becasue the ISS have really bad bandwidth.(there was an article on here last year when they finally got internet up their)
I just signed up for the Beta at their website. Can't wait to see this!