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Earth ISS Space Science

Space Station To Get HD Streaming Video Camera 50

Posted by samzenpus from the hd-eye-in-the-sky dept.
superglaze writes "A high-definition streaming video camera is to be installed on the International Space Station within a year. Built in the UK, the camera will hopefully provide a Google Earth-quality view on our planet, and the stream will be viewable — complete with zooming and panning capabilities — on the web."
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Space Station To Get HD Streaming Video Camera More

Space Station To Get HD Streaming Video Camera

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  • Better start getting in line for tickets.
  • Too expensive said NASA.

    • Re:Al Gore proposed a satellite to do this in 1990 (Score:5, Interesting)

      by vlm ( 69642 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2011 @11:30AM (#36661604)

      Too expensive said NASA.

      But they built it anyway, and it sits in storage because no one has a launch plan.

      Aka the Triana although the official marketing name was the DSCOVR

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_Climate_Observatory [wikipedia.org]

      • I remember talk of this in my section/branch at Goddard. Do you know which group actually designed/built it? I left in '97, but I remember grumbled comments about Gore's satellite with an HD feed, intended to sit at the L1 point. We built many small explorer satellites for expendable rockets and payload groups for shuttle flights.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The interesting bit of that being, NASA said it was a waste of money on their very limited budget, it got built anyway, and then the 100 million dollar pile sat in storage for 10 years. Now the Obama administration (why does anyone but NASA get to decide what to do) wants to repurpose it as a solar observer instead to replace ACE.

        That thing might never see space. Your tax dollars at work, folks.

      • because no one has a launch plan.

        Here it is: give it to Space-X. They need to prove their mettle at high altitudes and storing the satellite is costing money.

        Charge whatever an IMAX-3D movie costs at the time for 15 seconds of satellite time (manage the details ahead of time in a queue set up on a website). Give the JPEG as a novelty birthday gift, merchandise the pictures with Zazzle, etc.

        Space-X and NASA can split the revenue. Break-even in about 3-5 years, depending on how big a team is needed to mana

    • They must of priced it using those monster HD cables rated for space.

  • This will be pretty cool to zone out with. Pop on Space Station Soma, the stream, and off to lala land you go

  • panning and zooming (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pahles ( 701275 ) on Tuesday July 05, 2011 @10:48AM (#36661110)
    And how are they going to handle multiple viewers wanting to operate the camera at the same time?

    • I'm on record for calling 'shotgun'.

      so, after me, you guys can all fight over the controls.

    • And how are they going to handle multiple viewers wanting to operate the camera at the same time?

      I'd say they mean we can manipulate the image down here, but the camera is static. Kinda like digital zoom and optical zoom. If we can actually control the camera through the web, I'd guess they draw a few people a day from a pool of registered users and allow them to control the camera for 30 seconds or something of the sort.

    • Well while the linked article doesn't say much, I'd say the camera would be quite a bit more high-def than "high-definition". Especially since the article claims near Google Earth quality. If so, all zooming and panning would be segments of the orignal video feed. I also suppose that there would be more than one camera running at once, so a large cluster of images would be available for this purpose.

    • I didn't RTFA but the solution is simple: Use a high-res camera (4K maybe?), put a wide angle lens on it, and have a server listen in on the signal and send only the small chunk the user is requesting.

    • <quote>And how are they going to handle multiple viewers wanting to operate the camera at the same time?</quote>

      No Worries. Google already figured it out.
      I mean, Im already able to zoom in the satellite cameras for Google Earth.

      Whats that? software? digital image? ...
      Enough with your crazy techno babel!
  • Now the Russians can watch me showering from space! Sweet! ***In Soviet Russia, sky looks down at you!

  • point it right at the sun. Easy way to break what will turn out to be a multi-million dollar venture. Just don't send me the bill.

    • Since it is Nadir facing, they probably put hard stops in to prevent its field of view from ever being steered in a direction that would harm the optics of the instrument. They also are probably going to mount it on a part of the ISS that keeps its FOV in a safe orientation during various attitude maneuvers and so on.
  • a Bigelow unit added by 2013/2014. Seriously. This could be used for commercial space by private space companies. They could put up more astronauts for short visits.
  • See http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/25/urthecast-to-stream-live-hd-footage-of-earth-from-iss-like-stic/ and http://www.gizmag.com/urthecast-earth-video-platform/19020/ for more details. Video 3.25fps @ 1m/pixel, Stills @ 10m/pixel. Sounds kind of odd, dunnit?
  • I can see the headline now:

    Astronauts Worry That HD Camera's Strain on Internet Connection Will Interfere With Ability to Check Facebook From Space

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