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Chapter 4: The KidSat Camera 

Objective: To become familiar with the KidSat camera, how it's controlled, and the pictures it takes from the space shuttle. 

This chapter describes the KidSat camera itself, and how it is set up and operated during a space shuttle flight; it also defines the camera "footprint" (the area on the group captured in a photograph), and how that depends on the camera lens and the space shuttle altitude. 

The chapter includes some details about the camera, and details regarding the calculation of the camera footprint, that are not essential (though they may be of interest to you and your students). Below are the essential points to get across. Note also that this chapter contains a photograph of the camera installed in the space shuttle; it also contains some examples of photographs of the earth from the space shuttle.

Essentials:

• The camera is a digital camera, not a film camera. 

• Astronauts mount the camera in a space shuttle window a day or two after launch 
 (Therefore, it's fixed; it can't be pointed. During KidSat operations, it will look 
 straight down at the ground.). 

• Once the camera is mounted, commands can be sent to it from the Control Center at 
  UCSD (though NASA's Mission Control) while the shuttle is in orbit. 

• The KidSat photographs are digital images; they are stored on a shuttle computer and 
  can be transmitted to Earth while the shuttle is still in orbit. 

• It's important for students to have a feeling for the camera's "footprint"; it 
  depends on the lens on the camera, but is approximately 100 miles long (see the 
  chapter for exact numbers). 


Teachers' Handbook                           Page 38