Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

dicktice · 2003-01-06 10:18:36

I feel deprived whenever I think of full-time views of Earth seen from space being unavailble to the people of the world on their local TV (including me).
Someone--Buzz Aldrin perhaps--mentioned something like this in the past, but as far as I know it hasn't happened yet. Do any of you know of such a dedicated TV channel?
If not, how can we bring it about? And, with today's improvments, what enhancements might be included such as: centre of interest selection (hemisphere, country, city), zoom capability, weather and air pollution emphasis, ISS current location-in-orbit superposition, and I don't know what else....

soph · 2003-01-06 14:05:57

NASA does have earth view on for hours and hours a day, but that might be only available via satellite ???

clark · 2003-01-06 14:30:07

There was a suggestion a while back, by Gore I think, to launch a satellite out far enough from earth to catch the entire globe rotating. The idea was to beam back the image 24/7 for everyoen to watch on a single channel.

CalTech2010 · 2003-01-06 22:35:18

I get the NASA channel on Satellite TV, but it only shows Earth views about 10% of the time. The other 90% is an off-air picture with an astronaut in front of a galaxy, and those old 1960's films about the Apollo mission. It's kind of a techie format, with the film running length and a fill-in-the-blanks cover page about the film. It's really not very entertaining, but I do enjoy some of the Mars programing they show every once in a while.

As for the Earth views channel, it would probably be cool to watch while you're chilling out, or reading a book, or being generally calm, but for everything else I have to admit that it's like watching the paint dry. I'm talking about just a wide-angle view of the whole planet. The zoom feature would be cool, but if you had 500 million people using it at once, it creates a traffic problem. Would you suggest that they have different "zoom" channels you could tune into (ie hemispheres, oceans, continents, states, large cities, etc? You could feasibly put them on an interactive network, but there would have to be some pretty high access fees to make it worth anyone's time and investment.

dicktice · 2003-01-08 17:29:35

There was a suggestion a while back, by Gore I think, to launch a satellite out far enough from earth to catch the entire globe rotating. The idea was to beam back the image 24/7 for everyoen to watch on a single channel.

Yes, I remember, but that was then and this is now: What more can be added to make the view (1) useful to anyone, anywhere on the planet (2) zoom-able if accessible also on the internet (3) nighttime lights view (4) commercial if necessary (5) as a screen-saver (6) your court, anyone?

soph · 2003-01-08 17:45:03

(1) useful to anyone, anywhere on the planet (2) zoom-able if accessible also on the internet (3) nighttime lights view (4) commercial if necessary (5) as a screen-saver (6) your court, anyone?

(1) Yes, very possible, if they have computers or satellite TVs.

(2)Very hard if real time

(3)i dont quite understand what you mean

(4)sure

(5)not too hard, seti@home does this

dicktice · 2003-01-08 17:55:55

CalTech 2010: Thanks for the nicely thought-out reply. In answer, since no one appears to have seen such an Earth view on TV...and I would like to see something like this to catch on...I would comment further--
No, not by NASA satellite TV, because access is so geographically limited. This should be a World View for the people of the world.
Live Earth view would be forever changing, weather-wise and lighting-wise...certainly not "paint-wise" for gosh sakes.
In fact, I'd love to have it connected to my computer as a live screen-saver.
Downloaded from the internet, it would be zoom-able in any number of ways.
Commercials, if necessary, would be acceptable to get it started.
I wonder which geostationary satillite(s) might be capable of providing the Earth views service?

Josh Cryer · 2003-01-08 18:03:50

clark, Gore's little project is actually waiting to be launched. They just need the rocket, basically.

dicktice, not sure what you're really wanting, but if you have broadband you can watch NASA TV here: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/

Actually, 56k is pretty good for some of those streams.

Gore's idea seems to be as close to your thing as possible. With a high res camera, you can basically zoom in and out digitally. Physically doing it would prove impossible, for two reasons; first, there would be a lot of people wanting to zoom in and out, and second, there would be a timelag.

Here's a good list of viewable satallites though: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/satellite.html

Might be helpful.

Josh Cryer · 2003-01-08 18:06:29

Oh, BTW, you mentioned a screen saver. From the same site: http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthscr/

dicktice · 2003-01-08 18:09:41

Soph: Thanks. Right back atcha--
(1) Sat-view rebroadcast on local TV channel
(2) On internet, after downloading.
(3) City lights, dawns and dusks, auroras, volcanos, fires...
(4) Tastfully, how?
(5) How so, in the case of (hypothtical) Earth view?

soph · 2003-01-08 18:49:38

(5) first: all it would have to do is open a link to a broadcast on a NASA (or w/e the organization is) site. the broadcast would run until you ended it. all the computer has to do is auto-connect to the site, which isnt very hard. might take some custom user options setup at first, but nothing after.

(1)available on both cable and sat. a lot of people only have sat...theres plenty you can do with sat that you cant with cable. but yes, both would be great.

(2)i understand, but i dont know how this would work if theres one camera for X number of people.

(3)sure, why not, we can zoom that deeply.

(4)Perhaps 24/7 broadcast with advertisements on the bottom 5%-10% of the screen. unobtrusive, tactful ads. Just like the size of the NewMars banner. A company could rent out 30 min-1 hour slots to have their banner on the bottom.

(5) already covered.

CalTech2010 · 2003-01-08 20:50:23

I always thought it would be really cool to be able to see night lights from space. Or if we could edit out the clouds in real time.

I'd really like to watch the forest fires from space during the summer (I know it's sick, but they're still cool to watch)

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#1 2003-01-06 10:18:36

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#2 2003-01-06 14:05:57

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#3 2003-01-06 14:30:07

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#4 2003-01-06 22:35:18

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#5 2003-01-08 17:29:35

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#6 2003-01-08 17:45:03

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#7 2003-01-08 17:55:55

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#8 2003-01-08 18:03:50

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#9 2003-01-08 18:06:29

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#10 2003-01-08 18:09:41

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#11 2003-01-08 18:49:38

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

#12 2003-01-08 20:50:23

Re: Earth from space on TV - Whole Earth viewed in full-time on TV

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