Citizen astronaut Richard Garriott is now in Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Among his many self-directed missions is to collect images from space for The Nature Conservancy. Aiding his efforts is a new piece of software called Windows on Earth that was developed by the Association of Space Explorers to assist astronauts in locating targets on the Earth.
Astronauts tell the software what window they are looking out of on the ISS, they enter in targets that they want to observe, and the software counts down the time before the target will be in view. The software is web-based and available online to anyone with an interest. You can see the targets that Richard Garriott has input, a current view out of the ISS window at the Earth, and a tracking feature that shows the current position of the ISS.
Read an interesting overview of Garriott’s flight on Collected Space here. You can also visit Richard Garriott’s personal website where he’s chronicling his trip.
