Have you ever imagined how would be a spaceship appear from within? Much fascinating, isn’t it? But now, it would be possible for you to navigate through the International Space Station (ISS) through Street View on the Google Maps. Google told that almost 6 months were spent by an astronaut at the European Space Agency (ESA), Thomas Pesquet, at the ISS and took the Street View images in zero gravity. And now the public will be given access to these images to enable them explore and discover the experience of being in a spaceship.
ESA and Google, in their first-of-its-kind initiative, will present pictures of ISS’s interiors and enable you to experience how it would be like to see Earth from the outer space. Handy little dots are also supported by the Street View imagery. Fun facts or additional data pops up whenever a user clicks on these dots. Pesquet said, “I am very excited about getting street view onboard ISS. It will be a whimsical prospect for one and all to experience the implausible sense of being in space.” He added that he wished the ISS on the Street View of Google Maps would change the viewers’ viewpoint of the world.
The Street View team functioned with Marshall Space Flight Centre, Alabama, and NASA at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, the United States, to develop a gravity-free technique of gathering the images using DSLR cameras and tools already available in the ISS. The still pictures gathered from the ISS were then shared down to Earth where they were darned together to generate panoramic 360-degree images of the ISS, as mentioned by Google.
Astronauts have been living and functioning on the ISS for around 16 years. It is a framework composed of 15 linked modules and hovers 250 Miles above the Earth. It functions as a base for space explorations—probable impending undertakings to the Mars, asteroids, and Moon. It also functions as a pool that assembles information on the land, surface, oceans, and atmosphere of the Earth. It can be used to carry out studies and experiments that may not be possible to be executed from Earth, such as observe how the human body responds to microgravity and reviewing cyclones so as to notify the governments and population.
Isn’t it a great initiative by the ISS and Google? Explore the International Space Station and let us know your experience.
