Mapping Earth My way

It was a thrilling experience for the students of Shri Natesan Vidyasala as they participated in a space mission through Sally Ride EarthKAM (Acquiring Knowledge by Middle school students) program , a NASA - sponsored educational program. It was organised by resource persons from SPACE a Delhi based NGO on the 13th of June.

The students had the privilage of controling a digital camera on board the International Space Station (ISS), and photograph locations of their choice on the Earth from the unique perspective of space! The student participants said that they were given a chance to find regions of interest, like mountains cliffs, river delta etc.and correlate it to maps and weather predictions. They later submit their requests to ISS for photography.

A special digital camera mounted on the window of the ISS, then photographs images of the specified locations and makes it available to them via preset internet link. In the workshops, students learn to plan a target of interest based on orbits of the ISS.

Participants study geographical features, environmental problems, climatic sciences, meteorological changes, and other studies such as results of natural phenomena and disasters like - deforestation, glacier recession and coastline changes. They will be fascinated to receive photos specially clicked by ISS for them!