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| Cupola Observation Module, Image: Google |
Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut with the European Space Agency (ESA) spent 6 months on board of the International Space Station (ISS). During his time in space he worked with Google capturing spheric panorama images of the space station’s interiors and unique images of the Earth seen from space.
As a result you can now explore the ISS and have a look at the blue planet from space using Google Street View.
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| US Laboratory Module, Image: Google |
In his post on the Google Blog Thomas provides a little insight into the the picture capturing process in space: “Because of the particular constraints of living and working in space, it wasn’t possible to collect Street View using Google’s usual methods. Instead, the Street View team worked with NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama to design a gravity-free method of collecting the imagery using DSLR cameras and equipment already on the ISS. Then I collected still photos in space, that were sent down to Earth where they were stitched together to create panoramic 360 degree imagery of the ISS.”
More information and images are available in Thomas Pesquet’s article “Welcome to Outer Space View” on the Google Blog.
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| Joint Airlock (Quest), Image: Google |
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)