Get ready to look at the Earth in a new way
Urthecast launches its cameras successfully to the International Space Station
A Canadian company that wants to change the way we see our planet has successfully launched a pair of cameras into orbit aboard a Soyuz rocket.
Urthecast’s pitch is simple — high-definition, nearly live, video footage of the Earth’s surface from two cameras mounted on the International Space Station. A bit like Google Earth, but moving.
Users will be able to view everything sent back by the cameras through an interactive web platform, sharing and commenting on different events and locations. You’ll be able to see things happen, as they happen, from the air, and get notifications when the camera passes over your favourite places.
As it relies on the flight path of the ISS, coverage is a little on the limited side, only reaching about 55 degrees latitude. That chops out large parts of Northern Europe and Canada, as well as the southern tips of South America and New Zealand.
But it should be possible to get snapshots of what’s happening above these latitudes as the Earth’s surface curves away from the cameras.
The company is also pledging to use its cameras to assist disaster relief, humanitarian aid, scientific research and environmental monitoring. Oh, and there’ll be APIs available for people to build apps that hook into the information it provides.
The cameras are due to arrive at the ISS on 29 November, where they’ll be installed by the team currently working there. They’ll then need to undergo careful testing and calibration before they can start sending data back, so don’t expect things to get up and running before 2014.
But when they do, we’ll have a revolutionary new window on the Earth’s surface, in all its majesty. The kind of views that Commander Hadfield was able to send back during his time on the International Space Station. That’s definitely going to be worth waiting for.
