The earth is a marvelous place to live in, that goes without saying, never mind that over 200,000 people have already applied to take their chances in a one way trip to Mars. Well, I am quite sure that a fair number of us do wonder from time to time how an astronaut feels when he or she is in space, looking down on earth in its full splendor. Wonder no more with the new experiment that is known as the High Definition Earth Viewing, or HDEV for short, that was launched on April 18 last month in the “trunk” on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
The HDEV has since been set up outside the International Space Station, where a quartet of commercial HD video cameras are up and fully operational after its installation. The cameras as well as electronics remain within a pressurized box in order to offer ample protection to the equipment so that space’s harsh environment would not cause any havoc on its configuration. Do bear in mind that the screen itself in the live stream will look as though you are staring into pitch black darkness when the ISS is in orbital night, so there is no need to panic or give your monitor a few knocks to the side.
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