Photographing the Earth G324: The Can Do GeoCam payload

Abstract

The flight of the Charleston County School District Can Do Project GeoCam payload on STS-57 was the climax of a decade long endeavor to bring the promise and excitement of the space program directly into the classroom. The payload carried four cameras designed to take high resolution photographs of the Earth under the direction of children operating the first ever student control room. During the course of the flight, the students followed the Shuttle's orbital tract, satellite weather images and selected a target list that was sent up to the crew each night as part of the execute package. Targets from this list, as well as ones chosen by the crew visually, resulted in the successful collection of photographic runs at many interesting sites on three on three continents