01 July 2011
Posted in
Our Planet, Our Universe
This week held big news for the future of the International Space Station. A new Canadian, Russian and UK collaboration mixes the live stream concept of Google Earth and video playback feature of YouTube to create UrtheCast.com (pronounced “Earth Cast”). With two HD cameras set on the Russian module of the ISS, site users will be virtual spaceship captains, as they search, watch, rewind, fast forward, and zoom in and out of live streams of Earth.
From their own computers and mobile devices, UrtheCast users can clearly see man-made objects and people, and also track the ISS to see when it’ll fly over their homes. At a frame rate of 3.25 frames per second and the ability to zoom-in to 1.1 meters, the cameras are extremely precise in location and time. As if that weren’t stellar enough, UrtheCast can also be shared through Facebook and Twitter, downloaded as a Smartphone App, and third party developers can take video for their own applications.
Here's a video from the company:
