Google Street View launches users to space station – Jakarta Post

After taking usersto Peru's Machu Picchu and Game of Thronesfilming locations, Google Street View has recently introduced a new feature that allows its users to explore inside the International Space Station(ISS) and to see the Earth from on high.

Among the ISS locations on offer in the new featureare the CupolaObservational Module, from where users canlook at activity outside the station, the experimentalBigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), the unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule thattransports supplies to the ISS astronauts, and the US Lab Module that serves as the primary research laboratory.

Read also: Google lets you virtually explore 'Game of Thrones' filming locations

SpaceXs Dragon cargo craft is seen Feb. 23, 2017, during final approach to the International Space Station. (blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/02//File)

The ISS is a very interesting place with lots of high-tech equipment, Thomas Pesquet, theEuropean Space Agency (ESA)astronautwho was in charge of taking photos for the Google Street View, saidin a behind-the-scenesvideo.

[It's a very challenging task] since we dont have gravity in space, said Matthew Potter, who leads the technical photography operations for Google Street View, adding that they could not use a tripod in space, wherecamera stabilization tools were critical to their mission.

Floating 250 miles more than 400kilometers above the Earth, the ISS consists of 15 connected modules that facefour different directions in a cross-like formation. The space station serves as a scientific research hub to explore space, collect data from the atmosphere and Earth's surface,observe cyclones and other weather patterns, and conduct experiments, such as how a human body reacts tomicrogravity. (kes)

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Google Street View launches users to space station - Jakarta Post