MAI pupils and students take pictures of the Earth from the ISS
“The project is intended to familiarize the students with the space shooting technologies, the filming is carried out using a Nikon camera with a long-focus lens installed on the International Space Station (ISS). The camera is controlled remotely via the programmable device,” says Aleksey Kucheiko, the Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor, General and Scientific Director of the RISKSAT interregional project group.
The teams of participants receive a special permit for shooting the areas of the Earth from orbits, which are determined by the mission control center (MCC). As a rule, these are objects located along the tracks. Participants must determine their areas of interest, make an application and send it to the MCC. The request from the MCC via the communication system is transmitted to the ISS, where it is received on a programmable camera device. Next, the shooting takes place, and the data is transmitted back. The pictures are examined and analyzed by the team.“This time we ordered about ten shots. Some of them were cloudy, which is a typical situation, - says Aleksey. - Images of the of Crimea, Sakhalin, Primorye, regions as well as China, India, Kazakhstan, Chile and Australia turned out to be suitable for analysis. Speaking about specific technical tasks, then, for example, we were able to analyze the regions of deforestation in Primorye”.EarthKAM is the only program that gives students direct control over the Earth-imaging equipment located in orbit. At MAI, Aleksey teaches students the operation of space vehicles, and participation in the experiment is a great opportunity for the children to apply their knowledge in practice.
