Since returning to Earth in April following a seven-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut and accomplished photographer Don Pettit has been sorting through the numerous images that he took while aboard the orbital outpost, many of which he’s now sharing for the first time.
Take this stunner (below) that he posted on Monday, for example. It shows the Grand Canyon captured in near-infrared by Pettit as the space station passed overheard some 250 miles up. And as Pettit notes, it has a definite Mars-like quality about it.
“The Grand Canyon region photographed in near-infrared from the ISS, reminiscent of the surface of Mars,” the astronaut commented in the post.
The Grand Canyon region photographed in near-infrared from the ISS, reminiscent of the surface of Mars. pic.twitter.com/I1jjJmKTEL
Early on in his most recent ISS mission, Pettit, who at 70 is NASA’s oldest serving astronaut, shared another equally impressive shot (below) of the Grand Canyon, one that wouldn’t look out of place in an art gallery.
“The Grand Canyon is an orbital optical illusion,” Pettit said. “Instead of appearing as a deep trench, it is perceived as a contorted bump.”
Pettit adds that the image reminds him of “cardiac arteries on the heartland of Earth.”
The Grand Canyon is an orbital optical illusion. Instead of appearing as a deep trench, it is perceived as a contorted bump. In this photograph, it reminds me of cardiac arteries on the heartland of Earth.
Nikon Z9 IR, 70-200mm f2.8 lens set 200mm, 1/3200 sec, f11, ISO 500,… pic.twitter.com/hf2oeJ7wuB
Following his first two long-duration stays aboard the ISS in 2002 and 2011, Pettit spoke about his enthusiasm for taking photos from orbit.
“Astronaut imagery of Earth is an example of learning what you need to take pictures of and how to take the pictures,” he said in an interview with SmugMug Films.
Pettit continued: “How to take those pictures in space is incredibly complex. Certain camera components, like the flash, have to be modified to work in a vacuum. The cameras need to be steadied extremely carefully to avoid motion blur.
“Things don’t work the way they do down here on Earth. You are moving at eight kilometers a second. And so you have to be able to slew the camera at the same rate of orbital motion while you’re taking pictures to actually get the sharpest imagery.”
For more of Pettit’s fabulous work, check out this collection of some of the best images captured during his most recent ISS visit.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.