Sally Ride EarthKAM
ISS EarthKAM (previously known as simply EarthKAM, and KidSat) is a NASA sponsored program started in 1996 that allows middle school students from around the world to request high-quality photographs of their planet taken from the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
Since its creation, thousands of photographs of Earth have been taken by digital cameras on select space flights and the International Space Station. The digitized images are transmitted from orbit via a TDRSS Ku band satellite link to Johnson Space Center Mission Control. There are 4 missions per year. Teachers need to sign up on the website to get codewords that will be attached to the image request.
It is run as a cooperation between University of California, San Diego, Sally Ride Science, Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).[1]
History
The program was initiated by Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space in 1995. Originally called KidSat, the program allowed middle school students to capture images of the Earth from a camera system on board the space shuttle. The program operated successfully for a total of five shuttle flights (STS-76, STS-81, STS-86, STS-89, and STS-99). The program was renamed Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students (EarthKAM) in 1998. In 2001, the program was renamed again to ISS EarthKAM when its operations moved to the International Space Station (ISS).[2]
ISS EarthKAM captured the first photo of the Earth from the newly installed Window Observational Research Facility (WORF).[3]
After Dr. Ride's passing in 2012, NASA renamed the program once again to Sally Ride EarthKAM in her honor.[4]
The program received the "Top Results Award" at the 3rd Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference held on June 17–19, 2014.[5]
Past Shuttle and ISS missions
- STS-76, as KidSat
- STS-81, as KidSat
- STS-86, as KidSat
- STS-89, as EarthKAM
- STS-93, as EarthKAM
- STS-99, as EarthKAM
- See also list of missions
See also
- Windows on Earth, another project that assists with Earth imagery as viewed from ISS
- MoonKAM, a related lunar imagery project coordinated by Sally Ride
References
- ^ "Sally Ride EarthKAM Partneres". Sally Ride EarthKAM.
- ^ "About Sally Ride EarthKAM". Sally Ride EarthKAM.
- ^ "WORF First Image Web Feature". NASA.gov.
- ^ Weaver, David. "NASA and The White House Pay Tribute to Sally Ride". NASA. NASA.
- ^ "Sally Ride EarthKAM to receive award at the International Space Station Conference". Sally Ride science. Sally Ride Science.