Published in · 4 min read · Aug 17, 2017
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By Alice Liu, Technical Program Manager, Google Street View
Street View started out as Larry Page’s far-fetched idea to create a 360-degree map of the world and we recently celebrated 10 years of beautiful imagery from around the world. Today, people can scale mountains, dive into the depths of the ocean, scout out ramen spots, and walk through museums in far corners of the world. Over the last decade, a lot has changed — the technology we use, the appearance of the planet — but the goal of Google Maps has remained the same: to help you navigate and discover new corners of the Earth…and now beyond.
On July 20, the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, Street View released its first zero-gravity collection — enabling anyone to explore the International Space Station (ISS) from the comfort of the Earth. For the first time, you can tour all 15 modules and 2 visiting docking vehicles (SpaceX Dragon and Orbital Cygnus) of the ISS in 360 degrees. We’re excited about the collection — our first to be acquired in a zero-gravity environment and the first collection with annotations, a feature previously only available for Google Arts & Culture museums. Now as you walk through the modules of the ISS in Google Maps you’ll see clear and useful annotations highlighting things like where the astronauts work out to stay physically fit, what kind of food they eat, and where they do scientific experiments.
It is the culmination of a year-long effort that involved close collaboration between Google, all major space agencies (NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, JAXA) and CASIS (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space). We teamed up with Thomas Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut, who used onboard camera equipment and a pair of bungee cords to complete the collection of all modules. As the collection had to be done in the absence of gravity with limited mounting hardware onboard, we needed to adapt our terrestrial method for holding the camera while allowing it to be rotated around a fixed point so that the effect of parallax artifacts from stitched images could be minimized.
To test out and validate viable concepts and to create crew procedures for the on-orbit operation, we conducted a dry-run at the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility at the Johnson Space Center. Using a pair of crossed bungee cords already available onboard the ISS, we could define a point in space around which the camera can be rotated. In a weightless environment, the astronaut could simply place the camera next to the rotation point, and float around the camera while collecting images at the required camera angles.
Navigating inside the ISS and making sense of what’s inside can be confusing. It is a large 3-dimensional structure consisting of many interconnected modules that host both infrastructure to sustain life and instruments to enable scientific experiments conducted in space. To enhance people’s experiences exploring and learning about the ISS, we introduced point-specific-annotations that provide ‘up and down’ navigation and more information about points of interest, such as how exercise machines work and why it’s important for astronaut to exercise in space.
The ISS Street View imagery can be accessed from the Street View gallery, Google Earth Voyager, Google Arts & Culture, the Google Expeditions app, and the Google Daydream app. The imagery set can also be accessed from desktop via the Planets Runway. To access this special runway from maps.google.com, activate the satellite view, zoom out all the way until a Planets runway appears at the bottom of the page, and then click on the ISS ‘planet’ for the imagery.
We hope that the ISS imagery will inspire more Earthlings to explore this modern engineering marvel and get a glimpse of what it’s like to live and work in one of the most unique places in the world.
I'm an enthusiast with extensive knowledge in the field of digital mapping and geospatial technology, particularly in the context of Google Earth and Google Street View. The article you provided discusses the evolution of Google Maps, specifically Google Street View, and its recent foray into space with the release of a zero-gravity collection featuring the International Space Station (ISS). I'll break down the key concepts mentioned in the article:
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Google Street View: Google Street View is a feature within Google Maps that provides panoramic, 360-degree imagery of streets and locations around the world. It allows users to virtually explore places, streets, and landmarks as if they were physically present.
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Larry Page: Larry Page is one of the co-founders of Google and a key figure in the development of Google Street View. The article mentions that Street View started as his idea to create a comprehensive map of the world.
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Apollo 11 Moon Landing: The article references the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, which occurred on July 20. This historic event marked the first human landing on the Moon in 1969.
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Zero-Gravity Collection: This collection refers to the new set of images and data captured in the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS) by Google Street View. It allows users to explore the ISS in 360 degrees.
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International Space Station (ISS): The ISS is a habitable space station in low Earth orbit where astronauts from various space agencies conduct scientific experiments and live and work for extended periods. Google Street View partnered with space agencies like NASA, ESA, Roscosmos, and JAXA to capture imagery of the ISS.
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Annotations: The ISS Street View collection includes annotations, which are explanatory notes or labels added to the images to provide information about various aspects of the ISS, such as astronaut activities, food, and scientific experiments.
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Thomas Pesquet: Thomas Pesquet, a European Space Agency astronaut, played a significant role in capturing the imagery for the ISS Street View collection. He used camera equipment on board and improvised with bungee cords for stabilization.
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Parallax Artifacts: The article mentions the challenge of minimizing parallax artifacts from stitched images. Parallax artifacts occur when objects appear to shift positions when viewed from different angles, and they can affect the quality of panoramic images.
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Space Vehicle Mockup Facility: This facility at the Johnson Space Center is where a dry run was conducted to test camera equipment and procedures for capturing ISS imagery.
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Point-Specific Annotations: These annotations are designed to enhance the user experience by providing navigation cues and additional information about specific points of interest within the ISS, such as exercise machines and their importance for astronauts.
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Access to ISS Street View Imagery: The article mentions various platforms where users can access the ISS Street View imagery, including the Street View gallery, Google Earth Voyager, Google Arts & Culture, Google Expeditions app, Google Daydream app, and desktop access via Planets Runway on maps.google.com.
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Planets Runway: This is a unique feature in Google Maps that allows users to access the ISS imagery by activating satellite view, zooming out until the Planets runway appears, and clicking on the ISS 'planet' for access.
In conclusion, the article discusses Google Street View's journey from mapping Earth's streets to capturing imagery in the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station, and it highlights the technological challenges and collaborations involved in this endeavor. This development marks a significant expansion of Google's mapping capabilities and offers users the opportunity to explore space in an immersive way.
