CHENNAI: Around 57 students of three city schools were part of a NASA mission under EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School students) programme recently. They were provided with an unique opportunity to control a digital camera on board the International Space Station (ISS) to capture images of the Earth’s surface as seen from space. These images can be used in class projects in Earth science, space science, geography, social studies and more.
SPACE, a Delhi-based NGO providing astronomy among the school students, runs the educational outreach programme of NASA in collaboration with Education Pvt Ltd in India. The workshop was held in Chennai from April 12-16. Students of GT Aloha Vidhya Mandir, Neelankarai, DAV Public School, Velachery and Shri Natesan Vidyasala Matric Higher Secondary School, Mannivakkam participated in the mission.
This is a NASA mission administered by Sally Ride Science. Students were also permitted to write messages for astronauts onboard the ISS, which will be compiled by SPACE and sent to the mission team. As a part of the programme, participants can log in to the website and request images from the camera mounted on the ISS. Over 100 high resolution colour images of different locations of earth were captured through ISS camera.
Since 1998, the ISS EarthKAM has captured over 50,000 photos during 50 missions on the space station via this programme. The ISS, which orbits at a height of 354 km over the Earth, had a special camera installed to take pictures as requested by the students.
The kids were excited with the mission. “It motivates us to become astronauts,” said Anirudh S, a 7th grader. “We learnt many new things, added R P Amirthavarshini, an 8th grader.