Gizmodo
Fans of space, high definition television, and watching-your-washing-machine-while-stoned rejoice! Honoring planet Earth and hoping to bring us closer to the awe that astronauts feel while watching or home planet, NASA is going to start transmitting crystal-clear HD video of Gaia taken from orbit—both totally silent and also with commentary.
Unfortunately for Adam, Addy, and David Bowie, however, it won't be a 24/7 Live Earth channel, but an hour-long broadcast that is going to be repeated from April 18. The film has been edited from high quality HD footage taken from the International Space Station and the shuttle.
NASA to Broadcast Earth Views in High Definition Television HOUSTON — Since humans first flew in space, nothing has captivated astronauts more than the view of home out the window of their spacecraft. In honor of Earth Day, April 22, NASA will make those views available to people here on Earth with an event highlighting imagery taken by astronauts and the science behind it.For the first time ever, NASA Television will air a special hour-long broadcast of views of Earth taken in High Definition, or HD, by astronauts on past space shuttle and International Space Station missions.
The special HD broadcast will air between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 18, and replay at the same time on Monday, April 21. It will air every hour from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22.
The Friday HD broadcast will feature a silent version of the Earth views. The broadcasts on Monday and Tuesday will include a discussion of the views by Dr. Justin Wilkinson, a scientist with the Crew Earth Observations Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The footage also will air on standard NASA TV during regularly scheduled Video File broadcasts. For technical information on how to receive the special broadcast in high definition, and for NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit NASA TV.
Until that day, you will have to keep smoking your astroturf watching Flight of the Conchords reruns:
[NASA TV]
Comments
It's the ozone hole!
Right there!
Right there!
(Flight of the Conchords FTW)
Actually, that's where the debate was held the other night. The dark lord thing, you know...
Why broadcast it MOS? Don't people know how to turn the volume down on their own?
i have to admit- i really appreciate that nasa is spending millions of dollars to upgrade the screensaver on my ps3.
@dave the wet sprocket: Hey good idea!
I can use that pic for my desktop and put the recycle bin in that big ol' hole!
Nice.
Someone, somewhere will masturbate to that footage. Intentionally and otherwise. Trust me.
Also, I volunteer to be the UFO footage removal editor.
my question is this... we've got communication between the station and earth... we've got japan with a satellite that can do 1tb internet... why dont we have a decent downlink from the satellite to stream 24/7 HiDef video of the earth?
CREEPY!!! I JUST WATCHED THAT EPISODE OF FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS LAST NIGHT!!
GET OUT OF MY BRAIN!!!!
Finally, something tops Tang. This brings a tear to my eye.
Not live eh.
So I guess the UFOs will be edited out?
If I want an earth view in High-Def...
I'll walk outside.
get away from the keyboard once in a while.
Fake!!! We've never left the planet, all the footage since the 60's is doctored. I think they're just getting really good with Photoshop.
Crickey, that is one big fella, im just going to try and get a little bit closer. Look at that eye, gorgeous the pressure must have dropped a few hundred bars.
:D i hope it's nothing like that.
This are the broadcast times I found on Nasa TV:
Broadcast Times:
6 - 8 a.m. EDT, Mon., Apr. 21
6 a.m. - 8 p.m. EDT, Tues., Apr. 22 (Earth Day)
Too bad they didn't use a microphone. That would've sounded awesome.
We should send this HD camera to Uranus...
hehe
@Papsky: lol yea..
How many people actualy get the NASA channel though. I get it on DirecTv but I don't think it's in HD. Whoopie!
@draconis2941: The NASA channel has some awesome stuff. Dont be a maroon.
A 24 hour 'pictures of awesome nature stuff' channel, with NO VOICE OVER would rule. Someone get on that. Considering the number of absolutely horrid channels I get already, this should have been done years ago.
@Slartibartfast: In sapce, no one can hear you narrate.
I have to agree, not that many people get NASA TV through their regular television service. I wish I did, because the only thing I can do is watch the web stream at 96kbps and send it over to my TV to watch in the background. Its a government agency, for Pete's sake, it should be made availiable to everyone, like C-SPAN and C-SPAN2.
AWESOME!!
Record, edit, and voila, my new Dreamscene wallpaper.
It'll hold me over until I have my space-house (at which point I'll have such views from my deck).
what the hell is the NASA channel? or NASA TV? is that on cable?
soo....NASA uses my tax dollars to record video, then expects me to buy cable to see it?
how about a free, OTA broadcast on PBS?
@Cygni: Word. Twenty-six channels of friggin NASCAR, and no tax-funded-totally-awesome-space-stuff channel. sigh
@NoStyle: UFOs can edit themselves out.
who needs UFOs tho or view of earth when there's high-res milkdrop visualization for any compatible player.
pixel shademe, fractalities better than titities.
but i do very much enjoy view from plane , kingdomes o' giants and gnomes in the cloudsks.
Edited? Oh right, gotta remove the alien craft flying around in the foreground.
@dave the wet sprocket: My thoughts exactly :P
"So here is earth. Looking good... Rotating on its axis nicely. Ooh! ooh! Looks like we have a storm system coming up over the amazon. Nice. More clouds. Thunderstorms over Peru. -- When we come back: Namibia. Stay tuned!"
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