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NASA revealed live HD Earth viewing from International Space Station

NASA revealed live HD Earth viewing from International Space Station

NASA revealed live HD Earth viewing from International Space Station (ISS) on monday. The High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) is an experiment on board of the International Space Station. The HDEV was activated on April 30, 2014.

This experiment includes several commercial HD video cameras aiming at the Earth

The HDEV cycling of the cameras can sometimes stop, causing the video to only show select camera feeds. This is handled by the HDEV team, and is only scheduled on a temporary basis. Nominal video will resume once the team has finished their scheduled event.

While the HDEV collects beautiful images of the Earth from the ISS, the primary purpose of the experiment is monitoring that when exposed to the space environment at which rate the qualiity of the HD video camera image gets malfunctioned (mainly from cosmic ray damage) and verify the effectiveness of the design of the HDEV housing for thermal control.

The four cameras of the HDEV experiment have different directions and different views relative to the Inernational Space Station’s travel direction to provide several different viewing angles to the viewer. They are in positioned, 1 looking forward, 1 looking nearly straight down, and 2 looking back.

There’s only one camera can work at a time. The cameras are programmed to cycle from one camera to the next, As they cycle, It takes 8 to 10 seconds for each camera to turn off and the next camera turn on before the HD video starts. Comparable data can be collected on each camera through this cycling, while it also provides different Earth viewing outlook as a bonus.

Based on the HDEV streaming video, the University of Bonn in partnership with the German Space Agency is implementing the “Columbus Eye” program that incorporates the HDEV UStream video and describes the Columbus Eye project, which will leverage European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst educational activities in space.

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Shubham Jain