2002 SPACE EARTH VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| APOLLO 17 ANNIVERSARY: CELEBRATING THIRTY YEARS OF EARTH-OBSERVING | G02-089 | 12/03/02 | 00:07:45 | December 7, 2002, marks the thirtieth birthday of one of the most breathtaking photographs ever taken. It was on this day in 1972 that NASA launched the sixth and final Apollo lunar-landing mission: Apollo 17. The legacy of Apollo 17 lives on through its crew, its scientific discoveries, and a single photograph taken during its magnificent journey.
This snapshot has become one of the most widely recognized and requested photographs of all time. It represents not only a milestone in space exploration but also a giant stepping-stone in the quest to understand and protect our home planet.
We've come a long way in thirty years. With innovative satellite technologies and sophisticated computer modeling, today we are able to see and understand our planet in completely new ways.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): Here's Looking at You, Kid - Planet Earth -- look familiar? Perhaps that's because this is one of the most widely recognized and reproduced photographic images of all time.
Cruising towards the Moon at nearly 30,000 miles away from Earth, Apollo 17 found itself aligned with the Earth and the Sun, enabling the crew to take this 70 mm full-disk photograph of the planet. For the first time in an Apollo mission, the Antarctic continent was lit by the Sun and visible to the astronauts.
The Apollo 17 photograph became a symbol of environmental awareness during the 1970's, making its way onto numerous posters, flags, and T-shirts with the slogan, "It's the only one we've got."
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (2): Apollo 17: The Mission -Just after midnight on December 7, 1972, a Saturn V rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center, carrying the crew of Apollo 17. Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt journeyed to the moon to study its geology and to obtain the greatest number and variety of photographs of any Apollo mission thus far. To this day, Cernan and Schmitt are the last two people to have set foot on the Moon. The following clips are video and audio highlights from the Apollo 17 mission.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (3): A Changing View of a Changing Planet - How has our vision of Earth changed since we were first able to see it from above? Has the Earth itself changed?
Our planet has undergone vast transformations in its lifetime. Although many of these changes have occurred over immense spans of time, we have recently become more aware of some immediate changes in weather, topography, and biology, to name a few. With an entire array of Earth-observing satellites in orbit, we can take snapshots of Earth's dynamic systems at regular intervals and monitor changes over time.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (4): The Greatest Earth on Show -In the thirty years since Apollo 17 looked back at Earth, we have continuously increased our ability to see the planet in greater detail. The most detailed image of the entire Earth to date is the new "Blue Marble" image, created in 2002. To form the Blue Marble, NASA scientists and visualizers stitched together months of satellite observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square miles) of our planet. The following sequence is a brand new one-minute flying tour of the spectacular Blue Marble.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (5): Zoom Into the Grand Canyon - NASA's remote sensing abilities continue to expand. A trio of Earth-observing satellites brings you this spectacular view of the Grand Canyon. Using data from the Terra, Landsat 7 and IKONOS space craft and some powerful computer technology, visualizers at the Goddard Space Flight Center are able to create dramatic zooms like this one.
Courtesy: NASA
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