A near-real-time video stream of the Earth, taken from the International Space Station, is slated to go live this fall. The project will enable everything from the detailed monitoring of mass movements of people, such as refugees, to out-of-this-world marriage proposals. This will be the first time streaming video of the Earth will be available from an orbiting satellite.
The upcoming stream, called UrtheCast (pronounced "Earth-cast"), will have a resolution of 1 meter (3.3 feet) and will be free, says Scott Larson, UrtheCast's president. It will broadcast with a delay of about an hour to 90 minutes. Its resolution isn't sharp enough to pick out faces, Larson said, but there's still plenty the UrtheCast cameras will be able to see, including groups of people, buildings, trees, roads and fields.
"I mean, you'll never see the guy mowing the lawn in his backyard," Larson said. "But you will be able to see a white golf cart on a green lawn."
Larson's company also plans to stream lower-resolution images of the Earth starting in the first half of 2013.
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