Sally Ride EarthKAM

Sally Ride EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program started in 1996. The program was initiated by JoBea Way Holt, an Earth scientist from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and was initially named KidSat. It allowed students to direct a digital camera aboard a series of space shuttle flights to take photographs of specific places on Earth. In 1998, KidSat was co-opted Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and renamed EarthKAM. Dr. Ride directed the installation of camera equipment on the International Space Station (ISS), where it became a permanent fixture independent of shuttle flights.^[1]

During KidSat and EarthKAM missions (periods during which the program camera is operational), middle school students around the world can submit requests to capture photographs of specific locations. There are typically four missions a year. Students’ requests are relayed to a camera on the ISS. The camera then images the designated locations, and the digitized images are transmitted from orbit through a TDRSS K_u band satellite link to Johnson Space Center Mission Control. The images ultimately are posted on the Sally Ride EarthKAM website, where students can view and study them.^[1][2]

The project is run cooperatively by the University of Alabama in Huntsville; Teledyne Brown Engineering; Johnson Space Center; U.S. Space and Rocket Center; and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).^[3]

Since the program’s creation, cameras aboard the space shuttle and later the ISS have taken thousands of photographs of Earth. The entire collection of Sally Ride EarthKAM images is available in a searchable Sally Ride EarthKAM image archive.^[1]

To take part in the program, teachers sign up on the Sally Ride EarthKAM website and then receive code words that are used to track image requests.^[1]