Go Explore the ISS on Google Street View
The entire space station is available for touring with the virtual reality program.
By Avery Thompson
Google MapsYouTube
Every few days, NASA hosts a broadcast with astronauts aboard the International Space Station where the astronauts check in and tell the world what they're up to. Watching these broadcasts can give a little insight into what living on the ISS is like, but it's tough to get a sense of the size of the station itself.
To remedy that, Google teamed up with NASA and the ISS astronauts to bring Google Street View into space. Starting today, you can use Street View to explore every inch of the space station.
Getting to this point wasn't easy. Typically Google uses specialized camera equipment and trained photographers to create its panoramas, but neither of those were available on the ISS. Instead, the team had to rely on astronauts taking the photographs manually.
The microgravity environment posed challenges as well. The astronauts couldn't mount their cameras on a tripod to take the photos and instead had to rely on an ad-hoc bungee cord setup. Each panorama required 24 photos and the bungee cord rig had to be disassembled and reassembled at each new location. The entire process took four months.
But now that it's all completed, the ISS is open for virtual exploration. You can explore all 15 of the modules on the ISS including the recently added BEAM inflatable habitat as well as two cargo shuttles: a SpaceX Dragon and an ATK Cygnus. You can explore the entire space station here.
Avery Thompson twitter.com/physicallyavery
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