Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center.

Episode 141, The View From Above. I'm Pat Ryan. On this podcast we talk with scientists, engineers, astronauts, and other folks about

their part in America's Space Exploration Program. And today we're focusing on a very cool science

part, honest.

When we talk about science being conducted on the International Space Station,

we're usually talking about something happening in one of the many laboratory facilities

inside the station's modules, the Destiny Lab or the Columbus

or Kibo Laboratories. But those are not the only spots where science has done. For instance,

last November, we spent three episodes, 117, 118, and 119.

Discussing spacewalks to restore operations of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, it gathers data on cosmic particles from out on the top of the

station's truss pointed out towards space.

There are a number of other scientific experiments gathering data from out on the station's exterior, many of them are pointed down.

From a perched 250 miles up, the space station provides a stable platform for scientists who are interested in a different perspective on the home planet.

One of those scientists is Dr. William Stephanov, an internationally recognized researcher in remote sensing of urban geological and ecological processes. He is manager of the Exploration Science Office in the Astro Materials Research and Exploration Science Division located at

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Stephanov serves as the International Space Station Program scientist for Earth

Observations

and at JSC for remote sensing of Earth.

Today we're going to talk about some of those experiments

and why they matter, including some experiments that turn out the really outstanding photographs of Earth

that have been taken from the station. Be sure to check the episode web page and the show

notes because there we posted the photos that we're talking about

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