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Space Station To Get HD Streaming Video Camera
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."
Better start getting in line for tickets.
Too expensive said NASA.
This will be pretty cool to zone out with. Pop on Space Station Soma, the stream, and off to lala land you go
And how are they going to handle multiple viewers wanting to operate the camera at the same time?
Sig?
I imagine any government or agency that can't afford their own spy satellite might find uses for it. Also, selling the feeds to news agencies when stuff is occurring on a scale that can be captured by the camera. Imagine how much news agencies would have paid to have live zooming grainy video of Osama's compound during the raids, or 9/11 as it happened, kidnap of ships by Somali pirates, airplane crashes. The applications to news gathering are endless, and each clip would be worth a decent amount to the news agencies I would imagine, and would fuel a thirst for massive replication of the facility, and probably increases in resolution (military-permitting). Then there's watching weather events live, live feeds of long distance car races. Add in some post-processing with tracking and such and you can imagine some nice fancy live animations of sporting and news events, timelapse of forests being cut down, crops ripening, buildings being built, floods engulfing land. I think the first poster is right and there will be long queues for access.
Korma: Good
Float a Trojan coffee pot outside the station and watch as astronauts play snap dragon with the icy cold of space... all for a fresh cup of piping hot Java.
The advertisements will just roll in.
"So how do you actually make the money needed to make it viable in the long term?"
There will be plenty of repeat views, I'd think. Any time there's a flood/tsunami/volcanic ash cloud/other large-scale natural phenomenon, their problem is more likely to be keeping up with demand than anything else. Plenty of ad revenue.
Oh no... it's the future.
Now the Russians can watch me showering from space! Sweet! ***In Soviet Russia, sky looks down at you!
Snarky
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.
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
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
They must of priced it using those monster HD cables rated for space.
I think there may be a couple large companies that provide Internet satellite views and maps that may be willing to compete for paying for the output of such a device.
The ISS makes almost 16 orbits per day.
donations?
Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
I wonder how many "Prohibited" areas will be input into the cameras control software.
Zero. This is for orbital views, it doesn't have a super zoom lens.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
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.
Original article says Google Earth-like resolution though.
Korma: Good
I read that too, but it isn't qualified as 'extreme zoom' anywhere. If they're saying 'Google Earth-like' instead of saying "meters per pixel", they're saying it's not that exciting.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
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.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
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?
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
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 manage ops and business.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
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
Yes and no, they have dedicated data streams, the actual internet is only a small stream. They can easily stick it on another and use a server to shift it to another later. As for them being dial-up speeds, urm, try more like a few billion satellite broadband users, they can hook into any satellite they have line of sight on and open a connection to any point on earth they have a line of sight on with pretty much as much bandwidth as they need. The biggest problem is latency from earth to orbit, and they just shifted the orbit further out. Not to mention, the closest ground station is rarely directly underneath their location (shortest distance with least interference).