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Space tourist to take his camera to space and take pictures for you |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Thursday, 17 April 2008
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 American video game developer and space tourist-to-be Richard Garriott will be headed to the International Space Station in October, and like any tourist, he’s taking his camera. But he’ll take pictures for you while he’s in orbit. In what could be the ultimate orbital postcards, Garriott will take custom-targeted photographs of planet Earth for about 200 paying subscribers as part of a partnership with the “Earth Portraits” program of the Association of Space Explorers and the space website collectSPACE.com.
Garriott is paying $30 million to Roskosmos and Virginia-based Space Adventures for around a week aboard the ISS. He plans to perform a number of experiments and educational outreach projects - many suggested by Earth-bound students - during his flight, in addition to the Earth Portraits pictures.
Garriott, 46 years old, developed both the Ulitma and Tabula Rasa computer games and is the son of retired NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who flew on Skylab in 1973. After cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, Garriott will become the second second generation spaceflyer.
ASE is a non-profit group of 300 astronauts and 32 cosmonauts from 32 different countries. The Earth Portraits program, limited to 200 subscribers paying $500 apiece, will have Garriott snapping a photo of any location on Earth, provided it is visible from the ISS during his stay. Subscribers will be required to provide the latitude and longitude of their request by May 23. After returning to Earth, Garriott will autograph each photograph and include a personalized ten-word message of the subscriber’s choice.
Each 8x10 photo will cover an area 30km by 45 km at a resolution of about 12 megapixels, with each pixel covering 30 meters on the ground. They will be taken by a special computer-controlled camera and the program “Windows on Earth,” developed by both ASE and NASA. The proceeds from the Earth Portraits program will go to the ASE’s environmental and educational programs.
View: Earth Portraits
Discuss: TrekUnited Forum
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