PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

PHOTO CAPTION                            January 22, 1997
                                         Gaza Strip 
                                         KidSat image P-48256

Alex Amerri and Jenny Shanley, Kidsat
Gaza Strip, Mediterranean Sea
KidSat Image STS081.ESC.01002601

     This image, taken with the KidSat digital camera aboard the 
space shuttle Atlantis during STS-81,  was requested by Buist 
Academy School in Charleston, S.C. for the purpose of studying 
the coast of Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.  The Kidsat 
electronic still camera, using a 50 mm lens, was used to take 
this picture which covers an area 102.25 km long and 152.98 km 
wide. The image is centered at 32.7 degrees north latitude, 34.22 
degrees east longitude.  Due to shuttle orientation, north is 
located at approximately eleven o'clock in this image. The Gaza 
Strip is inhabited by more than 800,000 Palestinian Arabs and 
approximately 4,800 Jewish settlers.  This image shows the Gaza 
Strip and the Mediterranean Sea. The border can be seen within 
the image because of a difference in vegetation patterns, the 
Egyptian side being less vegetated perhaps due to heavy use of 
the land for grazing.  Like the West Bank, the Gaza Strip was 
included as part of the British Mandate that lasted from 1917 to 
1948.  In 1948, an area west of the Jordan River was given to the 
Jewish people, and the country of Israel was established.  
Palestinian refugees settled in Gaza and in the West Bank.  Since 
1948, the Arabs and the Israelis have fought four wars over land.   
More recently, peace negotiations have occurred between Israeli 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority 
President Yasser Arafat. 

     KidSat gives students across the country a chance to view 
and learn about  Earth using and commanding their own instruments 
in space.  The KidSat project is a result of the effort and 
collaboration of Johns Hopkins University's Institute for 
Academic Advancement of Youth, the University of California, San 
Diego, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  KidSat includes a 
payload of digital still and video cameras that fly on the Space 
Shuttle. Students operate these cameras from their classrooms, 
sending instructions to KidSat Mission Control Center at UC San 
Diego via the Internet to photograph specific regions of Earth 
they wish to study.  Image data are sent to the KidSat data 
system during the mission and these images are accessible in the 
classroom in real time, again using the Internet.  At JPL, 
students on the exploration team research the surrounding area of 
images and write a summary of its history as shown above.  The 
KidSat project allows students to explore Earth from space and 
learn about its past and its fragile, ever-changing environment.   

     Images and student results will be posted on the KidSat home 
page. Interested public school districts, teachers, and students 
may view the images and information provided by students during 
the mission via this World Wide Web site:

                 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/kidsat

     The KidSat pilot program is sponsored by NASA's Office of 
Human Resources and Education, with support from the Offices of 
Space Flight, Mission to Planet Earth and Space Science.

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