May 19, 2021
Categories: GCTC

Roscosmos cosmonaut corps cosmonauts undergo special training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center to orientate on the Earth from the International Space Station using key ground objects, Alexander Gorbunov reports in the ‘Cosmonaut’s Life’ blog.

In order to successfully photograph objects on the surface of the planet, a cosmonaut must possess certain skills with fast orientation among them. Due to the high speed of flight of the ISS, the cosmonauts have about 40 seconds to find and photograph a given object.

‘First, on each continent, we memorize a large number of key landmarks — lakes, large rivers, mountain ranges and peaks, bays and straits, as well as islands and archipelagos — up to a hundred objects on each continent,’ Alexander Gorbunov writes. ‘At the same time, the special software of the simulator allows you to make a view of the objects from the height of the ISS and from different angles. To bring the learning process even closer to reality, the program can add a cloud cover making it difficult to find the objects and photograph them.

The simulator simulates the view of the Earth from the ISS through the porthole, and the enlarged rectangle simulates the view through the camera viewfinder. During the session, the cosmonauts need to find the objects specified in the radiogram along the ISS flightpath and ‘photograph’ them. At the same time, they comment on their actions aloud, keep the object in the viewfinder using the joystick and simultaneously name aloud all the landmarks they observe in the window.

In their blog, the cosmonauts offer to guess the place on the planet captured in the photograph.

More from this category:
September 11, 2013

The launch of “Nauka” multifunctional laboratory module to the ISS planned for late 2013 will be shifted to the first half of 2014, – Vladimir…

full story
July 2, 2019

Preparations for the launch of the “Progress MS-12” cargo spaceship are continuing at the Baikonur cosmodrome. On July 1, 2019, RSC “Energia” and Yuzhny Space…

full story
August 21, 2014

According to the ordiring party’s request the launch of Soyuz-ST-B booster with Fregat-M upper stage and two European Galileo FOC space devices from Guiana Space…

full story
June 24, 2019

The work of the 59th long expedition is being completed at the International Space Station (ISS). The crew members of the “Soyuz MS-11” spacecraft –…

full story
January 15, 2020

The Roscosmos State Corporation considers the launch of the production of universal rocket modules of “Angara” launch vehicles at the Production Association “Polet” (a branch…

full story
October 10, 2018

Today, on October 10, 2018, a traditional press conference of the “Soyuz MS-10” spacecraft crews was held at the Testing and Training Complex of the…

full story
July 17, 2013

RIA Novosti – NASA said on Tuesday that it is struggling to determine what caused more than a liter of water to pour into the…

full story
April 4, 2013

In accordance with the ISS flight program station reboost maneuvre was carried out on the 3rd of April, 2013. According to calculations of MCC ballistic-navigational…

full story