14 DAY TRIAL // As much as we'd love to, the fact of the matter is we ordinary Earth dwellers will probably never get the chance to see what the International Space Station looks like on the inside. Not up close, anyway.
Courtesy of researchers with the European Space Agency, however, we can at least kick back, relax and take a virtual tour of the orbital complex.
Just the other day, the Agency released an interactive panorama revealing the inside of each and every of the many modules that comprise the International Space Station.
The panorama comprises images taken by European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who recently returned to Earth from a 199-day stay aboard the orbital complex.
Thus, it was in November 2014 that the astronaut arrived at the Station. Together with NASA's Terry Virts and Anton Shkaplerov, she landed back on our planet in early June this year.
“Just before ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti left the International Space Station after 199 days, she took up to 15 pictures inside each module. Now, the images have been stitched together to create this interactive panorama,” the European Space Agency explains.
You can actually explore each module
The interactive panorama doesn't just show brief glimpses of the orbital complex. Au contraire, you can actually explore its modules and sneak a peek at the machineries they each house.
The virtual tour lets you zoom in for a more detailed look and navigate corridors and rooms inside the International Space Station as if actually aboard it.
There are even play icons to watch astronauts explaining or demonstrating equipment and text icons that lead to web articles detailing the uses of one piece of machinery or another.
“We recommend exploring in a full screen to do justice to this immersive interactive panorama,” the virtual tour's creators encourage. Note: you should definitely take their advice.
These being said, we'll leave you to exploring the European Space Agency's panoramic tour of the International Space Station.
