>> Pat Ryan: Since the International Space Station's
Expedition 2, some 11 years ago, actually before that,
on shuttle missions dating back to 1996,
there have been middle school and college students
that have gotten a chance to participate in space flight
by taking pictures from orbit.
The program is called Earth Knowledge Acquired
by Middle School Students and that translates
in NASA into EarthKAM.
It was developed by former astronaut Sally Ride
and the project is still administered
by her science education company, Sally Ride Science.
EarthKAM is in operation onboard the International Space Station
this week, Earth Week.
We've decided to get students more involved
in the current mission.
They even have a special challenge that we're going
to learn about this week from Brion Au,
the EarthKAM Payload Developer.
Brion, welcome back.
EarthKAM, just to get this straight,
EarthKAM doesn't operate continuously onboard the
station, does it?
>> Brion Au: No, it doesn't.
It's a, it does not.
It's set up for a week long mission,
they call them missions, and we do that five times a year.
We'll set up around the end of January, again in April
for the Spring mission, we'll run in July
for the Summer mission, again in the end of September,
beginning of October and then another mission in November.
So it'll give the teachers and folks that want
to participate a chance to get into one of the five,
if not all of those sessions for that week.
>> Pat Ryan: And you can click that and it'll hold its position
so you don't have to hold it there.
Now, EarthKAM right now is set up inside node 2.
It's usually node 1, right?
>> Brion Au: That's correct.
[ inaudible ]
>> Pat Ryan: Because usually in the lab.
>> Brion Au: In the U.S. lab,
in the Window Observational Research Facility, or WORF,
as we call it, because there's a larger payload
in there right now, it's a huge telescope called ISERV.
We have an alternate location in node 2 and that's
where we're set up for this week.
>> Pat Ryan: Now, I've, we've talked about this enough to know
that people are taking pictures, but I asked you specifically,
what kind of camera are they using?
What kind of camera is up there taking pictures?
>> Brion Au: It's actually a digital still camera,
not a Nikon.
>> Pat Ryan: So unusual.
>> Brion Au: D2SX, no, it's a commercial,
off the shelf product.
We have several onboard and the only thing unique
about the whole EarthKAM system is the suite of software
that we run on a laptop that's tethered to the camera
by a USB cable and that allows us to command the camera
to take the picture and then it automatically downloads
that image from the camera to the laptop so we can bring them
down to the ground and get them posted for the students to see.
>> Pat Ryan: Let me take you back a step further and talk
about how the students are involved.
Give me the thumbnail sketch
of how kids are taking pictures from space.
>> Brion Au: Ok, what we do is take an orbit track
of the space station, we know where it's going
to be flying overhead and we superimpose that orbit track
on Google maps so that the kids can literally zoom
in to the target that they're trying to acquire.
And what that does is return data so that they can fill
out a camera image request and if the image is
within the footprint of the camera as it flies overhead,
the software will check that and accept the image.
If it's outside that footprint it will reject it
and that puts together a camera control file
that we uplink to the camera.
It's a series of time hacks when the station's crossing
over that point on the earth,
the software tells the camera to take a picture.
And it will at that instant
and the image process just flows the image to that laptop
so we can get it on the ground.
>> Pat Ryan: These are middle school students
who are doing this work and are figuring
out what target they want to shoot.
>> Brion Au: Yes, there is Geometry and Physics
and the whole suite of Mathematics types
of activities involved in actually acquiring an image.
Yes.
>> Pat Ryan: They're figuring out the target but then they,
they're just the first step in a process then,
to get that camera control file onboard.
>> Brion Au: Yes, yes.
That process works out at the University
of California at San Diego.
There's a team of undergrad students
who will receive all these image requests
from the students around the world.
Currently we have 411 schools.
Over 29,000 students signed up to participate in this mission.
>> Pat Ryan: This week.
>> Brion Au: This week, yes.
That number is almost double what we did
in our February mission which is significantly higher
than we've seen in the past.
So EarthKAM is starting to get the exposure and the use
that we're trying to build.
>> Pat Ryan: And we're talking about,
there's a mission control in San Diego.
>> Brion Au: We call it the MOC, yes,
the Missions Operations Center.
The undergrad students out at the University
of California San Diego staff this MOC and they bring
in the image requests, process it down into
that camera control file, send it to us here at UCSD,
they put it on our server.
They have access to it and then I will error check it ,
virus check it and then hand it off to the OCA operators who,
in turn, can uplink it to the station.
>> Pat Ryan: And as you explained then,
the picture's taken, it comes back down and the image is
>> Bryon Au: Correct.
>> Pat Ryan: returned to the students,
but it's available for anybody to see.
>> Brion Au: Yes, the students actually indirectly tell
that camera when to take a picture,
so that's the neat thing about it.
It's not a direct push a button on the ground
and it tells the camera to take a picture,
but it's the only payload that I know of right now
that allows the students to control the payload.
It's not a byproduct of another researcher's efforts.
>> Pat Ryan: I asked you to bring us a couple of pictures
because the next question is,
what do these kids want to take pictures of?
And you've provided us with a couple of images.
This one I wanted to show first because most
of us can identify what this is.
>> Brion Au: Obviously this is Massachusetts,
the Cape Cod area.
In this picture, it needs to be rotated,
it's just kind of rectilinear
[ assumed spelling ]
location, north is actually pointing
down to the lower right corner.
You can see different forms of erosion,
which is the contest that's coming up.
The landforms are there, you can also see the transportation
routes in the cities and so forth that are in there.
Now this was taken with the 50 millimeter lens
and that image is about 100 by 200 miles length and width.
The detail is not so great, but it's nice in the respect
that you can actually see major landforms, the urbanization,
you can see when things start, are being affected,
you can see how the soil
and so forth actually wash out into the ocean.
So it's a really, really nice picture of a larger area.
>> Pat Ryan: The next one is a little more detail to it,
this was I think 180 millimeter lens.
>> Brion Au: This is a 180 millimeter lens, yeah.
This image is about 60 by 80 miles.
And you can actually see Waukegan in the urban areas
and you can see the more detailed,
you can literally see city blocks in this one.
When we are working through the node 2 window,
it is not as optically clear as the US Lab window.
Those pictures that we get
through the US Laboratory window are absolutely stunning.
The quality and the crispness of the features that come
through are just amazing.
Again, in this one, as you get closer
in detail you can see more of the transportation routes.
You can see how the folks line up the streets, you know,
make the city blocks and things like that.
You can also see under the water, which, unlike the radar
and STS 99, it gets the radar and it turns black.
We can see underwater, you can see the beach and how
that tapers off into the deeper water in Lake Michigan.
>> Pat Ryan: We have one more picture
that we can show you where,
this is a different kind of composition.
>> Brion Au: Yes, yeah, this is actually in Genoa, Torino Italy
and you can see the mountainous forms,
you can go from the high arid land areas, the closer you get
to the ocean, you can actually see the forestation start
in darker green areas, and then
when you have mountains you'll actually see clouds form
because of the disturbance in the air that's caused
by the mountains, so that points that out there also.
It's actually a really neat picture, kind of hidden
under the clouds and you can see some of the more developed areas
and it's also, you can see, the students at UCSD kind of traced
in the border between France and Italy so yeah,
it's a really neat picture.
We have several.
We've got over 60,000 images on the ground, I believe,
that are available, open source to anybody to access
through the website that we've got for EarthKAM.
>> Pat Ryan: I mentioned earlier too,
that there's a special event going
on for the mission this week.
The Erosion Challenge?
>> Brion Au: Yes, because it's Earth Day, Earth Week.
The team out at UCSD put together a contest
for the participants in EarthKAM to capture an image of an area
with some type of erosion and along with that they're to come
up with a 250 word write up describing the features
and characteristics of their picture and submit that to UCSD
and then it will be judged with the winner selected on May 10th
and the winner will actually get
to teleconference with an astronaut.
Do a Q and A. For the rest of the participants,
it will also be a web cast so they can follow along
with the teleconference and everybody benefits.
So yeah, it's kind of neat.
>> Pat Ryan: Over 400 schools this week.
>> Brion Au: Correct.
Yeah, 411 and over 29,000 students actively engaged this
week right now.
>> Pat Ryan: And later on this week we intend
to have another feature that will tell you more about some
of the students that are involved in this program.
Brion, appreciate the time and the look at the pictures.
Enjoyed it.
>> Brion Au: Thank you very much.
>> Pat Ryan: Brion Au is the Payload Developer
for the EarthKAM investigation
on the International Space Station.