Streaming HD Webcams in Space!!

Hey folks-wasn't sure if this belonged in Space Exploration or Fragile Earth,move it if you like mods.

A new website called "Urthecast.com"is about to go into beta testing.
Its pretty darned cool(if it works).
So what happens is,tomorrow(nov 25th)they launch 2 hd webcams to the ISS,on a Soyuz rocket-Those cameras will then be aimed at Earth,and will stream live(almost)video of Earth spinning in real time to anyone who wishes to see it!!!

You have to sign up(free) with an email,and there are only limited places I think during the beta phase,so if anyone would like to try it out,hurry up and sign up for the beta test:

www.urthecast.com...

Pretty cool I think!
Lets hope it works.

Great,.
Now there shouldnt be any misunderstanding to what ever we keep seeing in space
that viewers keep calling UFO's. Unless of course, the owners of the cameras are under
a contracts to no allow any clear evidence to be seen by the common folk via You tube.
which of course leaves room for editing... lol
Guess we will "see"

Oh, I'll be anxious to see what it's actually able to see and show. How real time and uncensored is real-time? In fact..I think with some satellite tracking software, we can easily test that very quickly, too. We should have clear path and tracking to where these are, which should also give the intercepts times for other things passing under the orbital line.

Will we be able to visually see the larger of what crosses the orbit? That should answer the real-time or clean nature of the images real quickly, eh?

Yeah there will probably be a delay of maybe 20mins at least(time for signal to be recieved and processed)-But that could actuallty be really handy for us viewers-If we catch a meteor strike on the news as it happens-we will have time to log on to Urthcast and maybe see the meteor come in!!

I will be very interested to use it to look at weather systems,and especially lightning storms-we may get to see "sprites."
May be good for looking at volcanic eruptions as well.
I hope they add more cameras over time-maybe some Infra Red or H-alpha cameras would be cool.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Awesome, have signed up now, going to check my inbox for invite reply. Thanks for the chance to see this.

Just signed up!

I'm hoping I get to see ISON travelling by at some point, but if not it's still a win/win in my book. Live space shots --- I'm pretty darn excited! Thanks OP

Nice one Antar and Iamhobo-I am pretty excited about this as well...I can't wait!

We may get to see Ison,depending on how they frame their shots-I am hoping one camera will be for close ups of the earth,with the other being a wide angle,with room to see some space as well as our planet.

Uh oh...

Beta temporarily closed
Thank you for your interest! To accommodate platform changes, we've temporarily closed access to the Beta.

Our apologies for the inconvenience. We’ll have you testing out the new platform as soon as possible.

For any questions, please email us at: [email protected].

I got this after clicking "Sign In to my account"

I was just looking at the live NASA ground track and it really will be an interesting thing to be able to pull up anything constant and close to real time, given the sheer variety of what the ISS goes over. The info I looked at said 16 times a day for full orbits.

ISS Live Ground Track Map

I wonder if it will be allowed to maintain streams no matter what is happening?

iamhobo
Uh oh...

Beta temporarily closed
Thank you for your interest! To accommodate platform changes, we've temporarily closed access to the Beta.

Our apologies for the inconvenience. We’ll have you testing out the new platform as soon as possible.

For any questions, please email us at: [email protected].

I got this after clicking "Sign In to my account"

I think Thats ok-You have to wait until after the lauch tomorrow-
I do hope that is the case(I get the same message-I just checked).
At least we got in before the limeted beta test invites ran out though.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


This is amazing but If this is whats now available to us I wounder what they have

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

Thanks! [Pretend this is a triple "thumbs up"!]

That is, indeed, very cool. I just finished confirming my email address.

See ya buddy,
Milt

SHgNaTrinityinme1333
reply to post by Silcone Synapse

 

This is amazing but If this is whats now available to us I wounder what they have

Haha,I was just postulating the same idea to my Dad-Its looking like we will all have the abilty to play "cold war spies" from our own PC!
Real time Earth imaging from space for joe public indeed!!!
This is the start of the commercialization of space-Imagine seeing the IsS resupply vessel docking on these cams,or watching a rocket launch...Could be really cool.
Maybe we will see a Virgin Galactic Space ship One zoom past some day soon...
The future is here Baby,and its commercially viable space travel and photography!!

Don't expect this to be a UFO spotter.

1. Its pointing at earth.
2. NO WAY they are going to give you real time footage unless its coordinated. It has nothing to do with UFO but rather military satellites ,launches and other type top secret missions.

We need an ATS civilian rover with live feed camaras and controls.

Here is the NASA details for the launch tomorrow:

Date: November 25
Launch Vehicle: ISS Progress 53
Launch Site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Launch Time: 3:53 p.m.
EST Description: Progress 53 will carry supplies, hardware, fuel and water to the International Space Station.

No mention of our cameras,but on the next launch,I noticed "commercial resupply services"

Date: December 15 Mission: Orbital 1 Commercial Resupply Services flight Launch Vehicle: Antares Launch Site: Wallops Flight Facility Launch Pad: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A Launch Time: 10:52 p.m. EST Description: Orbital 1 will be the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station by Orbital Sciences.

www.nasa.gov...

Maybe they have managed to get their cameras on the Nov 25 launch instead?
I hope so.

Apologies in advance if I have fallen prey to some horrid viral marketing thing..I really want this to be real.And so far I think it is.
Hmm,Puzz.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse

We may get to see Ison,depending on how they frame their shots-I am hoping one camera will be for close ups of the earth,with the other being a wide angle,with room to see some space as well as our planet.

I E-Mailed the Urthecast people over a year ago, asking if the camera would be able to see the Moon. The reply:

This is an intriguing idea, Gary. And you’ve made an interesting observation here — one of our plans is to, at times, flip the camera around to look back into space. This way, when cloud cover is extremely dense, we hope to capture imagery of outer space. And perhaps, the moon : )

If they do show the Moon, I'll bet it will include the rim of the Earth. From what I have seen of the camera, it does not seem to use the complex Shack-Hartmann optics technology, (as used on Hubble) so should not be able to see the Moon, or planets, while looking into deep space, that is, pointing away from Earth. It will have to rely on Earths atmosphere to make the Moon or other planets visible. Still, I'm glad it's finally ready to begin operation.

It would be nice to watch, if the whole thing is true and works as intended. But I'm not giving them my email. I suspect they will be asking for a subscription fee later on anyhow. There will be waaay too many people wanting to watch the live stream.

NASA already provides live feed from the ISS, some of it being of Earth. www.ustream.tv...
~~~

GaryN
If they do show the Moon, I'll bet it will include the rim of the Earth. From what I have seen of the camera, it does not seem to use the complex Shack-Hartmann optics technology, (as used on Hubble) so should not be able to see the Moon, or planets, while looking into deep space, that is, pointing away from Earth.

A camera doesn't need the Shack–Hartmann wavefront sensor to see stuff. That sensor is used in adaptive optics, to combat optical abberation.

GaryN
If they do show the Moon, I'll bet it will include the rim of the Earth. From what I have seen of the camera, it does not seem to use the complex Shack-Hartmann optics technology, (as used on Hubble) so should not be able to see the Moon, or planets, while looking into deep space, that is, pointing away from Earth. It will have to rely on Earths atmosphere to make the Moon or other planets visible. Still, I'm glad it's finally ready to begin operation.

I think satellites have to be above the Earth's atmosphere or else atmospheric drag would cause the orbits to decay. I find your theory about light from the moon requiring an atmosphere amusing but I admire that you seek evidence to support your theory, however it seems that based on your comments that even if this camera sees the moon you will still reject the evidence that no atmosphere is needed.

Back to the OP topic, I think I'll try this once it goes live...after you beta testers work out the bugs.

Hit this link to watch the launch-

www.urthecast.com...

Launch 9pm UK time.
The video is up and running now,people are standing about waiting for the launch.

interupt42
Don't expect this to be a UFO spotter.

1. Its pointing at earth.
2. NO WAY they are going to give you real time footage unless its coordinated. It has nothing to do with UFO but rather military satellites ,launches and other type top secret missions.

We need an ATS civilian rover with live feed camaras and controls.

I'm not sure they'd be realistic in trying to catch all of that. Any image map of Earth Orbit which shows known, tracked satellites and other controlled objects looks like a big dust cloud surrounding the planet for how dense and messy it is. They'd need one guy just working intercept math and insuring the cameras winked off at the right moment.

On the other hand, when I was at President Reagan's Library, I was able to see a "Star Wars" military satellite from just a couple feet away. It was one they didn't launch and since the program was scrapped (that part of it, anyway), the orphan became a museum piece. You could show me that satellite from that same distance today and I wouldn't know what it was from a communications or weather satellite without having seen it in advance.