CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Earthlings are seeing their planet in a whole new light, thanks to NASA and its astronauts aboard the Internet-wired space station.
They’re beaming down dazzling images and guess-this- mystery-location photos via Twitter and have even launched a game. Landlubbers the world over are eating it up. From schoolchildren to grown-up business entrepreneurs and artists, the public is captivated.
It’s clear from the photos why orbiting astronauts rate Earth-gazing as their favorite pastime.
“The Earth never disappoints,” said Douglas Wheelock, commander of the international space station, in a broadcast interview Thursday.
Known to his nearly 68,000 Twitter followers as Astro Wheels, Wheelock has been posting photos of the Earth and some of his thoughts ever since he moved into the space station in June, five months after it got Internet access.
Wheelock’s photos this week included Mount Fuji in Japan as well as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, with a glittering space station solar wing in the foreground.
“Aurora Borealis as I will forever paint it in my dreams. Almost time to return home,” wrote Wheelock, whose mission ends next week.
The space station’s newest American resident, Scott Kelly, has gotten into the act and already has nearly 10,000 followers on Twitter from around the world. Just this week, he kicked off a geography trivia game, posting an image of twinkling lights at night and what looks to be the outline of a boot.
“This country’s contributions to science include the barometer, electric battery, nitroglycerin and wireless telegraphy to boot. Name it!” Kelly wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Most correctly guessed Italy, including MrsQclasstweets.
Mrs. Q is Heather Quasny, a third-grade math and science teacher at Ralph Parr Elementary School in League City, Texas, just several miles from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She said her students enjoy trying to identify a place on Earth from an actual photo rather than an atlas or map. It is a way to excite a new generation of learners, she said.
