The Earth Viewing Camera (EVC) payload is a fixed-pointed Earth-observing camera. The main goal of the system is to capture colour images of the Earth’s surface, to be used as a tool to increase general public awareness of the ISS and promote the use of the ISS to the potential user community for observation purposes.
The EVC is able to take medium resolution colour images of the Earth surface both in daylight and at nighttime.
The camera weighs 7.8 kg and measures 0.4 x 0.28 x 0.16 m. It uses a commercial sensor provided by Kodak, with a 2k x 2k detector. A colour Charge Coupled Device (CCD) is used for the EVC camera. The CCD will use a Bayer matrix filter to enhance the colour sensitivity on given pixels. It is able to capture colour images of the Earth’s surface that cover an area of 200 x 200 km. The Camera is supposed to produce images every 20 seconds
The EVC is given the command to acquire an image, store it and eventually download it via High Rate Data Link.
The EVC inner temperature is monitored through thermocouples hardwired to the Data Handling Power Unit. If the temperature read-out is outside a specific range indicated on the EVC Operating Manual, the unit shall be turned off in order to allow it to cool down.
