Abstract Photographic observations of the Earth by humans in low earth orbit, in contrast to unmanned orbital sensor systems, began during the 1960s as part of both the USA and former USSR manned space flight programs. The value of regularly repeated photographic observations of the Earth from orbit was demonstrated by later long-duration missions and led directly to the development of unmanned, multispectral orbital sensors such as the Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper on board the Landsat series of satellites. Handheld imagery of the Earth has been continually acquired during both USA and USSR/Russian space station and former Space Shuttle programs and represents a rich dataset that complements both historical and current unmanned sensor data for terrestrial studies. This revised chapter provides an overview of astronaut/cosmonaut imagery and development of specific data collection programs, then moves on to discussion of technical aspects of both the historical film and current digital cameras used in orbit with information on how to access online datasets. Case studies are presented to highlight varied applications of handheld imagery for terrestrial research and natural hazard monitoring. Developments in time-lapse sequence photography, full georeferencing of astronaut photographs, and involvement with international disaster response efforts are discussed. The chapter concludes with discussion of future directions for digital handheld imagery of the Earth from manned orbital platforms such as the International Space Station (ISS).


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    Earth Science Engagement Through Art and Astronaut Photography

    Meado, Andrea L. / Stefanov, William L. / Higgins, Melissa D. et al. | NTRS | 2018