Space: The Boring Frontier

Space: The Boring Frontier

NASA has launched a streaming video channel which feeds from a webcam on the International Space Station. The good news: that's really neat! The bad news: watching the feed from the International Space Station is… rather boring, actually. I watched for some time this morning, when the web cam was pointed in the direction of several astronauts who were making repairs to the exterior of the space station. The audio featured communications between a woman with a Russian accent (who I believe was inside, or possibly at the Russian control center in Moscow) and several unidentified men (who seemed to be working outside). Periodically a man would break in and provide a high-level overview. When I listened, he read off a list of the repairs that had just been made, including "the pivoting and rotation of one of the cassette containers that also contains material samples..." Oh man. Wake me when it's over. NASA has promised that when it's not focused on an active job, the webcam will be pointing towards the Earth. I kept hoping that the camera would pan down and show us some planetary goodness, but it was not to be. At first, the camera showed guys in space suits climbing over a bunch of gantries and doing heaven knows what. Halfway through, it switched to what seems to be a graphic of Earth, with the ISS's current trajectory. The sad truth about the International Space Station is that although it is important, both as an incredible milestone in human history, as a boon for science, really really dull. Great for science: bad for viewers at home. Alas!