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EarthKAM Concept • Middle School student control and Earth-looking camera on the Space Shuttle • "Mission Control Center" at UCSD makes this possible Scenario • Digital camera mounted in Space Shuttle Window (by astronauts) • Commanded from ground (by middle School students, thru UCSD) • takes photos of the Earth • Photos put on web for students (~hours) History • Begun ~3 years ago • Flown on 4 Space Shuttle flights • Gradual Scaling of: -- Control Center architecture (USCD) -- NUmber of participating schools (from 3 to 95) 4 components of Earthkam • Space Shuttle and camera • Kids in classrooms • USCD Control Center (links the two) • Image archive (www) Shuttle/Camera • Shuttle -- altitude ~ 140 - 300 miles -- speed ~ 5 mi/sec (!) • Camera -- Nikon with Kodak back (2 K x 3 K CCD) -- 18 MB TIF color images (~ 70 km x 100 km) -- 260 MB PCMCIA card -- SCSI to ThinkPad (with Earthkam software) Classrooms • Before the Shuttle flight: Curriculum -- Geography (maps, etc.) -- Earth Science -- Math; technology -- Space Science (earth/sun; orbits) • After the flight: "Research Projects" -- e.g. deforestation, wetlands, etc., using images • During the flight: "SMOC"