Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

educational outreach program started in 1996. The program was initiated by JoBea Way Holt, an Earth scientist from NASA's

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...

, and was initially named KidSat. It allowed students to direct a digital camera aboard a series of space shuttle flights to take photographs of specific places on Earth. In 1998, KidSat was co-opted Dr.

Sally Ride Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space, after cosmonauts V ...

, the first American woman in space and renamed EarthKAM. Dr. Ride directed the installation of camera equipment on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

(ISS), where it became a permanent fixture independent of shuttle flights. During KidSat and EarthKAM missions (periods during which the program camera is operational), middle school students around the world can submit requests to capture photographs of specific locations. There are typically four missions a year. Students’ requests are relayed to a camera on the ISS. The camera then images the designated locations, and the digitized images are transmitted from orbit through a TDRSS K_u band satellite link to

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

Mission Control. The images ultimately are posted on the Sally Ride EarthKAM website, where students can view and study them. The project is run cooperatively by the

University of Alabama in Huntsville The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) is a public research university in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and comprises eight colleges: arts, humanities ...

; Teledyne Brown Engineering;

; U.S. Space and Rocket Center; and the

(JPL). Since the program’s creation, cameras aboard the space shuttle and later the ISS have taken thousands of photographs of Earth. The entire collection of Sally Ride EarthKAM images is available in a searchable Sally Ride EarthKAM image archive. To take part in the program, teachers sign up on the Sally Ride EarthKAM website and then receive code words that are used to track image requests.

History

JoBea Holt had the idea for KidSat and worked with Sally Ride, Elizabeth Stork from Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and JPL engineers to implement it in 1995. Holt directed the KidSat program during its first three shuttle flights ( STS-76, STS-81, and STS-86) and established the process through which students and educators could request images. A Special Section of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (July 1999, volume 37, No. 4, p1751-1847) presents the KidSat missions along with the science, engineering and education that were integral to the program. The program allowed middle school students to capture images of Earth using a camera aboard the Space Shuttle. KidSat was renamed EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) in 1998 and flew as part of three additional shuttle flights (

STS-89 STS-89 was a Space Shuttle mission to the ''Mir'' space station flown by Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Endeavour, ''Endeavour'', and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 22 January 1998. Crew Crew notes STS-89 was originally scheduled ...

STS-93 STS-93 in 1999 marked the 95th launch of the Space Shuttle, the 26th launch of Space Shuttle Columbia, ''Columbia'', and the 21st night launch of a Space Shuttle. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle Commander on this flight. Its prima ...

, and STS-99). In 2001, the camera moved to the International Space Station, and the program was renamed ISS EarthKAM. After Ride's death in 2012, NASA renamed the program Sally Ride EarthKAM in her honor. EarthKAM captured the first photo of Earth from the newly installed Window Observational Research Facility (WORF). Sally Ride EarthKAM received the Top Results Award at the Third Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference, held June 17–19, 2014.

Past Shuttle and ISS missions

* STS-76 ''

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

'', as KidSat * STS-81 ''Atlantis'', as KidSat * STS-86 ''Atlantis'', as KidSat *

'' Endeavour'', as EarthKAM *

'' Columbia'', as EarthKAM * STS-99 ''Endeavour'', as EarthKAM * See als
list of missions

References

External links

* https://www.earthkam.org/home{{Cite web, url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=87, title = Experiment Details * https://web.archive.org/web/19981111190530/http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/ * http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/90.html NASA programs Projects established in 1996

History

Past Shuttle and ISS missions

See also

References

External links