NASA Is Shutting Down 'Space Station Live'
Keith’s note: Adapted from several messages circulating on Google+: “JSC is pulling the plug on Space Station Live due to budget cuts. You are encouraged to contact the space agency and ask to reconsider the decision. As suggested on the site, you can submit your concerns by emailing NASA official Jennifer B. Price at [email protected] with ISS Live Web Site in the Subject.
ISS Live is a unique resource. It displays real-time telemetry data on the space station’s electrical, environmental, attitude control, communications, and other systems. Mobile apps for Android and iOS are also available for checking the telemetry on your smartphone or tablet. Live telemetry, from a real spaceship. A lot of the same data flight controllers have on their console displays at NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston. This is possibly one of the geekiest resources ever.”
ISS live looks pretty interesting. I’d never heard of it previously. Has it gotten much publicity? How much money are they saving by shutting it down? How long has it been going? I wonder if its mainly aimed at the public or for mission control people to keep in touch with activity on ISS from their desks or from home since it seems to be run by mission operations people and not by public affairs. If that is the case maybe its more of a cost avoidance?
I’m not sure why most of the public would be interested in it unless someone was simply an avid ISS follower; it doesn’t seem there are that many of those people. The whole thing is sort of educational but I wonder if anyone has data how any of it has been used in schools-most notably the educational ‘lessons’. Those lessons appear to all be for AP classes. That is a very small subset of students and classes.
Its one of those things that NASA does that is out there and might have some value but it does not seem well integrated into other parts of the NASA PR or educational products. NASA used to have an ISS webpage that had lots of good data and diagrams and pictures of systems and modules. This one has some different descriptions but does not appear linked to the other page and a lot of it is overlapping.
This has been a pretty common criticism of NASA’s web presence. Not well integrated. A lot of stuff that is difficult to find, not sure whats the latest, and not completely obvious how it would be used.
I watch occasionally, always interesting to get a sense of what is really going on in space.