Have you ever wanted to see what the astronaut’s see as they’re circling the Earth on the International Space Station (ISS)? Sure, you might get an idea from Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, Google Earth, or using the Satellite Tool Kit, but those are probably faint echoes of perspective. Well, there’s a project might give that perspective of astronauts on the ISS a more–realistic–edge.
The Satellite project is designed to help viewers undergo an “emotional transformation,” or something similar to the wonder and feelings astronauts feel when they see the Earth from space for the first time. The project’s team hopes the general public will experience those feelings upon seeing the project in person. The project is here on Earth, which will make it easier for the general public to view it.
You can go to The Satellite project’s “about” page to see the kind of feelings those astronauts did felt upon seeing Earth from space. To get inspire those feelings for viewers of the project, the project builders are using six high definition projectors that are projecting a combined image of the Earth on a spherical screen. At least, that’s what this TechCrunch post says. The project is also attempting to integrate real-time data from imagery and other remote sensing satellites, so that the resulting moving image will be pretty much exactly what an ISS astronaut would see. Except viewers would be looking through what looks like a huge picture window, instead of a porthole.
One other bit of information from the TechCrunch article: the project is looking for sponsors and people who might have time to help put the project together. If this gets done, it would be yet another way for the general public to get a taste of what the ultimate space operators feel while in space. And they won’t need to board a Soyuz to do it.
The Mad Spaceball 