Psychology of Space Exploration

Patterns in Crew-Initiated Photography of Earth from the ISS—

Is Earth Observation a Salutogenic Experience?

the date the image was acquired, along with other camera settings. Currently, the
Kodak 760 DSC is used for CEO; however, this camera was upgraded with the
higher resolution Nikon D2x in the latter part of 2008.
In addition to watching Earth, ISS crewmembers photograph Earth through
the windows of the ISS and are able to share those images with the world. The
CEO activity provides a venue to transmit requests for photographs of areas of sci-
entific or public interest to the astronauts each day and to distribute the acquired
photographs to scientists and the public. Crewmembers take photographs of the
targets during their free or unscheduled time; Earth photography is never a sched-
uled crew activity. A list of candidate targets is sent to them on a daily basis, and
crewmembers can make attempts to photograph those targets, choose to take no
images, or, on their own initiative, photograph Earth at any time. These self-initiated
images would seem to be of special importance to crewmembers since the taking of
these images is purely volitional. Whether requested by scientists or self-initiated,
images of Earth taken from the ISS are identified and distributed via the Gateway
to Astronaut Photography of Earth Web site.^10

Earth Observation and Behavioral Health in Human Spaceflight

While NASA has always engaged in space exploration research, The Vision for
Space Exploration and subsequent definitions of specific exploration mission archi-
tectures have required a much more focused use of the ISS.^11 In particular, the ISS is
to be used for research on human health on long-duration space missions, as well as
for technology development and testing.^12 Behavioral health and performance has
been identified as a discipline with additional research needs requiring the ISS.^13

10. NASA, Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth Web site, http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov.


11. NASA, The Vision for Space Exploration (Washington, DC: NASA NP-2004-01-334-HQ,
    2004), pp. 15–17.


12. NASA, “The NASA Research and Utilization Plan for the International Space Station
    (ISS), A Report to the Committee on Science of the United States House of Representatives
    and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the United States Senate,
    NASA Headquarters” (Washington, DC: NASA Headquarters, 2006), pp. 1–20.


13. NASA, Bioastronautics Roadmap: A Risk Reduction Strategy for Human Space Exploration
    (Houston, TX: NASA Johnson Space Center SP-2004-6113, 2005), p. 5; John R. Ball and