Live Earth Observation Streams from the Space Station?

by | Jul 23, 2014

UrtheCast's 5-meter-resolution camera will capture any location ISS passes over, generating large strips of 40-kilometer-wide imagery, 365 days a year.

UrtheCast's 5-meter-resolution camera will capture any location ISS passes over, generating large strips of 40-kilometer-wide imagery, 365 days a year.

An expanded Earth observation data stream, due to new state-of-the-art sensors aboard NASA's segment of the International Space Station (ISS), may lead to a live stream of Earth. Vancouver-based company UrtheCast plans to install and operate its sensors aboard ISS.

Having additional sensors on the International Space Station not only mitigates our technology risk, but also adds to our current site of cameras aboard the station, said Scott Larson, UrtheCast's CEO, in a media release. This initiative reflects our belief in the International Space Station as an ideal platform for Earth observation.

The idea is that, eventually, the sensors on the Earth observation deck, composed of a high-resolution dual-mode optical and video camera and a high-resolution dual-band synthetic aperture radar, could become an accessible live stream of Earth.

Being both education and scientifically focused, these sensors will help augment NASA's efforts to more fully utilize the International Space Station as a national lab, while enabling more private-sector participation, said Michael Read, NASA manager of the station's National Lab Office.

Image courtesy of UrtheCaste.

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