There is hubbub aboard the International Space Station this week as Shuttle astronauts bring a new Japanese science module, new crew members and a toilet. I'm impressed. It's easier to get an appointment with a doctor than a plumber!
The International Space Station is a wonderful photographic observation platform. Orbiting about 200 miles above the Earth (209.65 miles above the Eastern Pacific Ocean, as I type this), it's above weather and atmosphere. For astronauts, there is one problem: To use cameras inside the ISS, they have to shoot through the window.
Try it yourself, if you really need that "banging your head against the wall" frustration. Window glass is optically awful.
And yet, the astronauts take so many pictures, you've got to wonder if they think the Earth is actually Lindsay Lohan. The ISS crew is responsible for over 320,000 so far. This compares to the Space Shuttle's 287,116; Mir: 2,512; Skylab: 1,623; Apollo, Gemini & Mercury: 11,385.
Windows on the Space Station are special. None is more so than the Destiny Lab Window, designed by Karen Scott. Scott, who designed and tested the 20-inch wide window, says, "An ideal window would be one that has no affect on light that passes through it. The Destiny window comes close." It transmits 98.5% of any visible light that hits it--in pristine condition. "You could point a 16-inch telescope through the window and see no distortions," says Scott.
A human with a camera is a lot more versatile than autonomous space based hardware. As Greg Byrne, the manager of NASA's Crew Earth Observations Project at the Johnson Space Center, points out, "Most satellites look straight down, but astronauts can look in any direction and notice what's unusual. They can snap photos between clouds, quickly swap between zoom and wide-angle lenses, and track curious features."
So the astronauts continue to fire away through the window and continue to bring home amazing sights.
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