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earthcam is a program one of many

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educational outreach programs from NASA

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this one is run out of the Johnson Space

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Center and utilizes some of the cameras

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already installed on the International

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Space Station student and students and

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educators are invited to apply online to

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be a part of that program where they can

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request specific photo opportunities

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based on the forecasted ground track of

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the space station and they could request

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those photos and use them for different

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research opportunities that the students

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themselves might be participating in you

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can find out more information about the

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they're accepting applications now and

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we'll be having a session kind of

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collecting those photo opportunities

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coming up in the next couple of weeks

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that deadline coming up shortly and the

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next photo opportunity session begins

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April 23rd running through the 26 though

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you're encouraged to participate in that

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program or spread the word to any

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teachers and educators in your community

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we have Ken ramsley a student with brown

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university joining us to talk about the

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earth camp program thanks so much Ken

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for joining us hi Nicole glad to be here

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why don't you start by telling us a

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little bit about yourself what you're

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studying there at Brown University I'm a

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graduate student at Brown I'm in the

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planetary geosciences group studying

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under James head my particular interest

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is something we call natural

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trajectories which would be things like

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impact ejecta from large craters I'm a

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mid-career type person and I'm previous

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to this I was a spacecraft systems

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engineer and I'm currently also a

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visiting investigator at Brown and I

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teach orbital mechanics and a few other

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things so my interest is centered around

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orbital mechanics and those sorts of

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things but applied now nowadays to

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planetary science well tell us how did

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you hear about earthcam you certainly

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had a diverse background and you

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mentioned spacecraft systems is it

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through those channels or was there a

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different way that you heard about the

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program initially I heard about the

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program at Brown our coordinator at

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Brown is test Caswell and she was

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publicizing the earth cam the program

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last fall so we all heard about it and

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it turns out that commander Dave Scott

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of Apollo 15 is a visiting professor at

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Brown and he was also included in that

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email so it's a bit of a convoluted

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story but I found out about it because

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dave was interested in some images from

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an earth cam system well tell us a

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little bit more about that that is

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that's a

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a really unique part of your story this

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this project that you wanted to pursue

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so why don't you walk us through how

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that evolved sure sure well it turned

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out that that we we specifically asked

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Dave if there was any part of a mission

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a space mission maybe not just Apollo 15

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because of course it was around the moon

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and but he was on previous missions

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Apollo 9 and Gemini 8 and he had a vivid

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recollection during his Gemini 8 mission

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that that that came to mind and it

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turned out that it was an image of an

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experience passing over the Himalaya

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Mountains now it you know all the

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spacecraft would pass over the Himalayas

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quite often but at this particular time

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it was what we've called sort of a lull

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between storms it was during just prior

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to re-entry and it was after a rather

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serious emergency on the Gemini 8 flight

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this this was the first orbital docking

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flight the the first mission where a

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spacecraft would dock with another

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spacecraft so an Agena target vehicle

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had been launched ahead of the the

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Gemini and the geminal was launched one

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orbit later rendezvous docked no problem

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and everything was nominal for about 25

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minutes and it turned out after about 25

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minutes the combined spacecraft began to

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pitch and roll slowly and the command

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pilot of Gemini 8 was Neil Armstrong and

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Neil managed to maintain stability by

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adding thrust but they were using up

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fuel and they were out of contact with

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Mission Control this was the Gemini

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program they weren't as many ground

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stations and methods for connecting as

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there are today and so the two

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astronauts worked out that that the only

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solution was to undock to find out

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whether or not it was the Agena or the

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the Gemini spacecraft that was having

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problems and it turned out it was the

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Gemini spacecraft that had a stuck

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thruster and very quickly within a

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minute or so they were spinning up to a

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rate of about one revolution per second

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which was extremely dangerous so Neil

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Armstrong with one hand was controlling

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the the geminii trying to keep the thing

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from spinning too fast when with another

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hand he was shutting

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down the the reaction control system the

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the the thrusters system that was that

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was causing the problem and shut the

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entire system down and now they're

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spinning at about one revolution per

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second and the only way to save the

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mission at that point was to switch to a

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does the system that that's used during

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reentry the thrusters are used during

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re-entry and with that Neil was able to

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regain control over the spacecraft but

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the mission rules were once that system

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was turned on they they were required to

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return to Earth as soon as possible so

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it was during the the the return to

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Earth after this particular emergency

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when everything was all settled they had

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fired their retro rockets they were in

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the proper orientation for reentry that

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Dave Scott and was looking out the

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window watching the Himalayas passing

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overhead so you can imagine why and

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perhaps that particular time passing

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over the Himalayas might be special to

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him that's an amazing story and it's

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amazing that you had this opportunity to

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talk with him and work with him and and

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use earthcam to get this you know

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capture this image that was so important

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as you said to him and into that mission

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yes so my involvement was rather than

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just taking images of the Himalayas we

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we thought perhaps we could work out the

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exact ground track passing over the

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Himalayas that they saw out the window

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and so it turns out that that nASA has a

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terrific historical archive of mission

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records you know debriefing and mission

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reports and so forth and that included

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the orbital information that I needed to

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to figure out exactly what that ground

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track was so it turns out that the the

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gemenese spacecraft had to perform nine

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maneuvers in order to rendezvous and

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that was very complicated to work

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through but the target vehicle went into

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orbit that would that establish the

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ground track and so by tracing that

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ground track across the Himalayas at the

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proper time I was able to use that to

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select coordinates for the earth cam so

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we thought this was last fall and we

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selected approximately eight targets and

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so far we've received two images this is

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fascinating I was just going to ask how

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long this whole process

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took from when you conceived the idea

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that you want to participate in earth km

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working with him to identify a possible

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opportunity that I'll start in the fall

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that was all in the fall yeah it was

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probably over the course of the weekend

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a little bit of back and forth you know

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once I understood what what the

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objective was it was mostly homework

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hunt my part these these documents are

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500 pages long and the table of contents

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alone or three or 30 pages long but it's

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my specialty i really enjoy orbital

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mechanics and i enjoy working through

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the details and so providing that

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simulation was a lot of fun i really

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enjoyed it and i was really happy to be

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able to participate so what is the plan

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now how do you plan on is there do you

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have any plans for those images that

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you've gotten we're holding on to them

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right now that the the program for

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various reasons I don't remember at last

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fall but it terminated a couple of days

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early so there's still we still have

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about six more images to acquire so

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we'll be resubmitting those four in the

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next program run I believe that's at the

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end of this month and then when we have

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that that complete series we'll put

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together some sort of a composition that

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that shows the entire ground track

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that's wonderful and do you have any

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thoughts or advice for other students

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may be considering participating in

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earthcam um I I think it's you know a

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lot of people who are interested in

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where they live and their home city or

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whatever but you know there's also

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there's history there are things that

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have happened there's places that may

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you know if you're interested in

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volcanoes or if you're interested in in

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islands of the Pacific or whatever

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whatever you're interested you can you

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can figure that out so I guess my point

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is that it's not just you know pick the

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first thing that comes to mind but maybe

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there's more of a story you know more of

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a personal connection and I think that

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makes it a lot more interesting and a

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lot more satisfying absolutely you're

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sounds like a really unique story

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attached with this and hopefully it'll

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inspire others to take take advantage of

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this really unique opportunity to be

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part of the space station program and

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part of the science and research that's

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being done so thank you so much for

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sharing this with us and we wish you the