>> Joining me now here in Mission Control Houston on console is one
of our earth scientists from the Johnson Space Center.
This is Melissa Dawson.
Uh, Melissa, thank you so much for being here today with me,
and why don't you tell me a little bit
about what your role is here at the Johnson Space Center.
>> Well, I'm in Current Observations, I'm an earth scientist, and what we do is we have
about 300 sites around the world that we like to have the astronauts take pictures of,
so we'll look at the station orbits for that day, and then if they cross over any
of our targets, we will screen for weather and see if they have adequate lighting
and then we can ask them to take a picture of that site for us and then they'll downlink it
to us and we'll catalogue it so you you know you can see this river or this city and things
like that in the picture, and if we're working with collaborators, then,
we'll send them the picture and they can do their research
or any other things that they need to do with it.
>> OK. So what are some the things you guys hope to accomplish with all these earth observations?
>> Well you know we've been doing this for a little over 10 years,
and so we take the pictures over time and we can look at what sort
of earth science we can actually view from these.
Say you want to look at how the [inaudible] are depleting over time, you can, you know,
do some science with that, or you can look
at how population growth is affecting certain places.
Um, you can look at city lights at nighttime and, say for instance, look at Houston
and see how it changes over, you know, over the past 5, 10 years and see if there was a lot
of population rising, and a lot of other aspects that we can really learn from our pictures.
>> OK, so basically a lot of really important aspects here
on the earth we can take just by looking at it from space...
>> Right.
>> We can learn a lot things.
So about how many pictures does each crew, you know, send down during their expedition?
How many are they taking?
>> Well recently with the time lapse videos, they've been taking tens of thousands
because each of these videos, you know, requires about an average of 500 pictures for each one.
And so it's really you know it's upped a little bit, but now it's about tens of thousands.
>> Tens of thousands.
OK. Well, why don't we talk a little bit about these time lapse videos,
and you're watching one now as this shows the station passing
over the eastern coast of the United States.
Now again, these are, these are collections of images.
These aren't actual videos.
So the crew isn't just sticking a video camera out of a window.
>> Right.
>> Why are you guys using images instead of these videos?
>> Well, right now the cameras on board have much higher resolution
than a video camera would, so we can capture a lot of other things from our,
our videos if we use time lapse photography, so instead of looking at a dim star field
from a video camera, we can see actual constellations, and, you know, the Milky Way.
Or we can see city lights brighter than ever, really, with these.
So until we get more advanced video cameras on board, it's the best way to go.
>> OK. And about how long have you guys been making these time lapse videos?
And again, this is easily some of the most spectacular views we've ever had
in the space station.
And you came up with this idea.
>> Yeah, we've been doing it since mid-August, I believe.
They sent down something looking over North America going down to South America, and,
you know, I saw the images coming down and I noticed that, you know,
it looked like they had mounted a camera in the cupola and,
or another window, and they started just, you know, taking a picture every 3 seconds
or 5 seconds, and I put it together just to see what it would look like and it came
out spectacular, and so it's really just, it's gone a long ways.
>> And, again, they really are some of the most breathtaking views we've had in the station,
so I guess we all have you to thank.
Now, some of these, ah, you're seeing now storms all across the earth as the station passes by at
about 17,000 miles an hour, and part of what you guys are always researching are some fairly
unique phenomena.
Um, what are some of the more unique things you're hoping to capture in the future
and again get a new look at through these time lapse videos?
>> Well just recently, the commander, Dan Burbank, found the Lovejoy Comet.
He got a great sequence on that.
And so, you know, that's one of the things that we can, you know, kind of build on,
and also maybe, you know, if we can capture shooting stars or, you know, just hurricanes
or anything really, it's a whole new vantage point that we can see these things from.
>> OK. And, we've already been doing this since about August or so,
and do you have any favorites that have come down so far?
I mean I know the auroras have been very popular for people to see.
Do you have any personal favorites?
>> Um, well, there was one of the aurora australis that was really breathtaking back
in September or October, I can't remember which one.
And also the Lovejoy Comet that we just saw.
I mean, that was a spectacular video, and it made a lot of rounds.
I mean, people just loved that video and we got a lot of comments from it.
It was great.
>> OK. And I mean, kind of an easy question since, as you watch,
you can see these are just gorgeous videos.
Why do you think people are getting so excited
about seeing these, and you know, asking about them?
>> Well honestly, it's a whole new vantage point for people to see these things.
You know, they don't get to see these things every day, and only astronauts get to see this,
and so, you know, people kind of get a sense of how it looks from up there, and it's really,
it's breathtaking, the things that you can see from up in space.
>> It really is, and that is one of the things these astronauts always struggle with,
is just describing the views that they get to see...
>> Right, right.
>> And since they're such a select group, they don't get to always share it,
and now we're finally getting the chance to share this with the whole world.
>> Exactly.
Yeah.
>> OK. Well, thank you Melissa.
It's been great having you on and we really love the videos and we hope
to see many, many more in the future.
>> Thank you very much.
>> Thank you.