Sally Ride EarthKAM 15 Years of STEM Education and Outreach From Aboard the International Space Station
Tyler Finley1, Robert Griffin1, Tim Klug1, Scott Harbour2, Brion Au3, Sara Graves1 (1)The University of Alabama-Huntsville, (2)U.S. Space and Rocket Center, (3)NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
What is the Sally Ride EarthKAM? NASA-sponsored education camera payload enabling students from around the world to request and capture photos of the Earth from the ISS
Students from both formal and informal educational settings
History of the Project • Sally Ride • First American woman in space (1983)
• 1995: KidSat
• 1998: EarthKAM • 2001: Moved to ISS • 2012: ‘Sally Ride EarthKAM’
History of the Project • Moved to USSRC (Huntsville) in Fall 2015 • Collaboration between USSRC, UAH, TBE
• Integration with Space Camp • Access to large number of students and teachers
Mission Operations Center • Managed by graduate and undergraduate students from UAH
How does it work? • Students use web interface to view ISS future orbits, select image targets
• Requests are compiled into camera control files (CCFs) that are sent to the ISS • Laptop connected to the camera receives files, tells camera when to take photos • Images are downlinked and posted to the web for students to view
Missions (55 so far) • Camera is operational 4-5 times per year • Week in duration (Tuesday – Saturday) • ~ 75 orbits per week • ~ 5000 images taken per week • 200+ classrooms from ~20 countries
Student MOC 1. Select orbit 2. Select photo opportunity 3. Enter codeword
4. Fill in request info, submit 5. Receive downlinked photo and view!
Benefit to Students and Teachers • Experience participating in a NASA mission • Collect near-real time data to support lessons in numerous fields • Interact with other schools around the world
Image Products • Raw images
• Annotated images • “Investigating Images” sections • And More!
Teacher Feedback 3rd grade, Austria: “Identification of landmarks or cloud patterns, awareness of remote sensing.”
4th grade, Spain: “We would like to continue with our previous project about how global warming is affecting the most endangered areas such as coastal landscapes, small oceanic islands or glaciers all over the planet.”
9-12th grade, US: “Compare to imagery the students acquired through their high-altitude ballooning project.” 7th grade, US: “Identification of land cover changes over time. Specifically, exploring watersheds and the roles of water in earth's surface processes.”
6th Grade, US: “We plan to use Sally Ride for a mapping unit: learning about tools of modern cartographers, latitude and longitude, weather maps for good photos etc.”
Future Directions • Short-term goals: • New camera • Nighttime imagery • Website updates
• Long-term goals: • Physics of remote sensing/EO through near IR imagery • Public-private partnerships and sustainability • Citizen Science
www.earthkam.org: • Sign up for a mission • View the Gallery • Check out the Activities page • And More!
Questions? CONTACT:
[email protected] [email protected] Funding and program support provided by NASA ISS National Lab Office/JSC (Cooperative Agreement Number NNJ15GU14A)
Supplementary slides
EarthKAM stats • 55 missions completed • 670,000 students • 89 countries • Over 125,000 images taken
Favorite photos w/CCFID Hurricane Celia: 109381
Grand Canyon: 114355
Payload Components • Hardware Elements • Nikon D2Xs Digital Still Camera (12.84mp) • 50mm (120km x 185km) • 180mm lenses (38km x 55km) • Change at mid-mission
• Lenovo T61p Laptop Computer • “Station Support Computer” (SSC)
• Camera Mounting Bracket • Multi-Purpose Bracket
• Software Element • EarthKAM Flight Software v8.1
