sciencetech-blog

comments

It seems almost every day we are treated to another amazing image taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station.

But keeping track of all these images of Earth can be a challenge, especially when it comes to finding one observing a specific location.

Thankfully, an interactive map has the solution by lets you explore all the images taken at specific points across the world by astronauts on board the ISS.

Dave Maclean of the Centre of Geographic Sciences in Nova Scotia has made an interactive space image map (interactive module above). The map compiles images from tweets sent by astronauts and cosmonauts on board the ISS. Each image is given a location tag and can be searched on the map by scrolling around the world Clicking on an image will take you to the original tweet to see what they astronaut said, and it also shows the position of the ISS

The map was created by Dave MacLean, GIS Faculty at the Centre of Geographic Sciences of the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC).

It includes images posted to Twitter by two astronauts and two cosmonauts currently on the space station during the Expedition 40/41 mission: Alex Gerst, Reid Wiseman, Макс Сураев and Oleg Artemyev.

And it also includes contributions from the general public, such as time-lapse videos and more, posted online. 

This map was created using mapping software called Esri.

Clicking on a location tag reveals the picture taken at that spot, in addition to providing a link to the original tweet.

Each location tag also contains the letter of the first name of the astronaut or cosmonaut who took the image for easy identification.

On the map the current location of the ISS is also shown.

MacLean tells MailOnline he wanted to create the map 'to enable lots of people to see the world from ISS perspective over time - and not let a tweet slip by.'

He added that it is also 'an example of mapping pictures and videos for my students - so they can build similar maps with their topic areas.'

There are many different images to view on the map. This image over Algeria was taken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev on 23 August 2014

American astronaut Reid Wiseman took this picture of Karman vortices on a volcano around Fogo Island of Cape Verde in June 2014

The astronauts are continuing their groundbreaking research on the ISS, with a new crew set to travel to the station next month, while Russian cosmonauts also completed a spacewalk last week.

And recently German Alexander Gerst took part in a live Facebook Q&A to answer questions from people on Earth.

One included Sir Richard Branson, who asked: 'What do you think the role of astronauts will be in 50 years' time? Pioneers? Guides? Or the norm?'

Gerst responded: 'My hope would be that in 50 years from now, space travellers will not only be professional agency astronauts, but that everybody should have a realistic chance to make the incredible experience I am having right now.

'Anyway, I hope there will still be pioneers out there who will fly to destinations farther away.'

Construction of the ISS (shown) began on 20 November 1998. It supports a crew of up to six, with crews split into groups of three. The station orbits at a height of around 264 miles (425km). It has a total mass of about 990,000lbs (450,000kg) and has living space roughly equivalent to a five-bedroom house. It completes an orbit of Earth every 92.91 minutes and moves at 17,100 miles (27,600km) per hour