At-home STEM Activities: Viewing Earth from Above
This week, we’re learning all about life in space!
When astronauts orbit Earth on the International Space Station (ISS), they have tasks to complete. The ISS is an orbiting science lab, where station crew from around the world conduct experiments and research in a microgravity environment.
One of these experiments is the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) system. The HDEV places four HD cameras on the outside of the space station and sends live videos back to Earth. The main goal of this experiment is to see what effect space has on the cameras and their image quality. The cameras that the HDEV uses are commercially available, which are a lot cheaper than cameras that are made especially for space travel. If it’s found that these cameras hold up well in the low temperatures and harsh radiation of space, then that would greatly reduce the cost of future missions.
View of the High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) flight assembly installed on the exterior of the Columbus European Laboratory module. Image and caption credit: NASA
Another goal of the HDEV is to act as an educational resource for schools around the country. High school students designed some of the components of the HDEV and a majority of the system’s operations are performed by student teams from the High Schools United by NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH) program. Also, the HDEV’s live stream is always available for public viewing on NASA’s website (and right here, below!).
Beyond the public’s uses of these photos and videos, scientists on Earth can use them to analyze our planets dynamic systems to study weather and climate and understand what makes our planet habitable when searching for life on other planets.
When looking at photos from space, it can be a little difficult to figure out where on Earth your seeing. But by observing the geography and looking for familiar shapes, one can identify the location they’re looking at.
Think you can identify places on Earth as seen from space, try your hand at the quiz below! Keep track of how many answers you get correct, and then challenge a friend or family member to see who can get more questions right.
