WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:01.390 --> 00:00:05.070
So, my heart is definitely racing. I don’t know about anyone else’s.

2
00:00:05.070 --> 00:00:08.100
This is the stuff nerds dream of.

3
00:00:08.100 --> 00:00:09.090
Ten seconds

4
00:00:09.090 --> 00:00:09.810
Nine

5
00:00:09.810 --> 00:00:10.980
Eight

6
00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:11.980
Seven

7
00:00:11.980 --> 00:00:12.870
Six

8
00:00:12.870 --> 00:00:14.400
- It’s gonna happen!-

9
00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:15.090
Four

10
00:00:15.090 --> 00:00:15.980
Three

11
00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:17.790
Two

12
00:00:17.790 --> 00:00:20.450


13
00:00:20.450 --> 00:00:24.130
NASA Explorers

14
00:00:24.130 --> 00:00:26.530
Cryosphere

15
00:00:26.530 --> 00:00:29.130


16
00:00:29.130 --> 00:00:32.450
Episode Nine: Final Approach

17
00:00:32.450 --> 00:00:34.260
That countdown you just heard?

18
00:00:34.260 --> 00:00:36.010
We’ll get back to that in a minute.

19
00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:42.900
Last episode, we saw the epic launch of ICESat-2, NASA’s newest state-of-the-art ice-observing satellite.

20
00:00:42.900 --> 00:00:47.070
But now that it’s in orbit, the pressure to deliver results in on.

21
00:00:47.070 --> 00:00:53.320
Between launch and the first ground returns, it took seventeen or eighteen days or something like this.

22
00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:55.920
You know, it’s a time when you’re quite nervous.

23
00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.660
Nine years ago, Dr. Thorsten Markus took over as the Lead Project Scientist

24
00:00:59.660 --> 00:01:03.810
for ICESat-2 during a time when the mission needed a champion.

25
00:01:03.810 --> 00:01:08.570
You start fighting for a mission, for over - for nine years now.

26
00:01:08.570 --> 00:01:12.880
So, when ICESat-2 was turned on for the first time, eighteen days after it was launched,

27
00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:19.110
only then would the science team know if the whole thing had worked. And it did

28
00:01:19.110 --> 00:01:22.710
First of all, it’s kind of emotional being here.

29
00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:26.150
ICESat-2 was in development for nine, ten years

30
00:01:26.150 --> 00:01:31.590
and, you know, as a project scientist, you live a mission, right?

31
00:01:31.590 --> 00:01:34.070
If it sounds like there’s a lot of noise in the background,

32
00:01:34.070 --> 00:01:38.750
that’s because Thorsten is being interviewed from a plane 1,500 feet in the air.

33
00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:43.970
IceBridge was tasked with the job of bridging the data between the end of ICESat’s mission

34
00:01:43.970 --> 00:01:48.810
and the beginning of ICESat-2 – about a nine-year difference.

35
00:01:48.810 --> 00:01:55.210
The goal is that it would run until ICESat-2 launched, and then have overlap with ICESat-2 as well

36
00:01:55.210 --> 00:01:59.550
so we can get a really long, well calibrated time series from IceBridge.

37
00:01:59.550 --> 00:02:02.630
As the Deputy Project Scientist for Operation IceBridge,

38
00:02:02.630 --> 00:02:06.840
Brooke works closely with Thorsten to make sure the two missions are syncing up.

39
00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:14.530
The timing was everything during that mission, which was a real challenge, because not only….

40
00:02:14.530 --> 00:02:18.950
Basically, what you need to take away is getting an airplane and a satellite in space

41
00:02:18.950 --> 00:02:26.870
to fly over the same flight path at the same time and collect matching data is really, really hard

42
00:02:26.870 --> 00:02:29.990
IceBridge was tasked with two objectives:

43
00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:35.690
Check the accuracy of ICESat-2’s data over land ice and over sea ice.

44
00:02:35.690 --> 00:02:41.160
They were able to lock in the land ice data fairly early in the mission. But the sea ice data…

45
00:02:41.160 --> 00:02:43.520
It was really tricky. We waited day after day.

46
00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:45.650
Do we fly the sea ice? It’s still on our list.

47
00:02:45.650 --> 00:02:57.270
Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Mark on the overpass! Zero four three five three five zulu.

48
00:02:57.270 --> 00:02:58.460
Here’s what just happened:

49
00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:06.560
A plane 1,500 feet up and a satellite 308 miles up measured the same sea ice at the same time

50
00:03:06.560 --> 00:03:14.520
This moment finally linked veteran mission Operation IceBridge’s data to that of its new sister mission, ICESat-2

51
00:03:14.520 --> 00:03:20.340
- two projects that, until now, were separate for nearly ten years.

52
00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:27.200
It’s a very satisfying feeling, because you do something that is meaningful in the bigger picture.

53
00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:31.210
And yeah, that’s very satisfying.

54
00:03:31.210 --> 00:03:33.800
Our search for knowledge doesn’t end here.

55
00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:39.310
GRACE-FO and ICESat-2, the two satellite missions that launched this year,

56
00:03:39.310 --> 00:03:44.250
will continue to bring in incredible data for the foreseeable future.

57
00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:47.510
The steady drumbeat of campaigns in the field goes on.

58
00:03:47.510 --> 00:03:52.570
But most of all, the people who look for answers will never stop searching.

59
00:03:52.570 --> 00:03:57.000
And from our perspective, it’s pretty clear why:

60
00:03:57.000 --> 00:03:58.140


61
00:03:58.140 --> 00:04:01.790
What is your favorite planet in the solar system?

62
00:04:01.790 --> 00:04:04.490
My favorite planet is Earth.

63
00:04:04.490 --> 00:04:07.830
What? Earth…Really?

64
00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:09.410
The Earth! Obviously.

65
00:04:09.410 --> 00:04:11.090


66
00:04:11.090 --> 00:04:14.000
My favorite planet in the solar system?

67
00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:17.880
Earth! Right? We live on it. It’s a really important one.

68
00:04:17.880 --> 00:04:20.340
My favorite planet is Earth!

69
00:04:20.340 --> 00:04:22.010


70
00:04:22.010 --> 00:04:22.610
Yeah, so -

71
00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:24.060
Why?

72
00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:28.000
When you look out at the other planets, they’re absolutely fascinating.

73
00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.990
They’ve got all sorts of interesting systems going on. They’ve got dust storms.

74
00:04:31.990 --> 00:04:37.300
But then when you’re on another planet looking back at Earth, I mean, it’s just incredible.

75
00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:45.350
Whenever you go in different places, it looks so different, so amazing, it’s just…I love the planet Earth.

76
00:04:45.350 --> 00:04:48.640
It’s just a very special planet. This is our home.

77
00:04:48.640 --> 00:04:53.220
We’ve seen things far beyond the solar system.

78
00:04:53.220 --> 00:05:02.680
But even with all that, even with the amazing things we’ve seen, one of the most amazing is the Earth itself.

79
00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:04.430
It’s gotta be Earth.

80
00:05:04.430 --> 00:05:06.810
It’s gotta be Earth.

81
00:05:06.810 --> 00:05:08.970
It’s gotta be here. I like the polar regions of here.

82
00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:11.680
Of Earth. Yeah, sorry. It’s very boring.

83
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:12.260
Earth is good.

84
00:05:12.260 --> 00:05:12.720
Earth is good.

85
00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:14.060
We live here. It sustains our life.

86
00:05:14.060 --> 00:05:15.640
I’m not going to turn my back on it.

87
00:05:15.640 --> 00:05:17.760
[Laughing]

88
00:05:17.760 --> 00:05:22.180
It’s got water, it’s got ice, it’s got vegetation.

89
00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:30.610
I mean it’s just, it’s rich with life. And so studying Earth is a very, very rewarding career.

90
00:05:30.610 --> 00:05:36.450
And I think if we were on any other planet, we’d be trying to get to Earth as quickly as we could.

91
00:05:36.450 --> 00:05:38.960


92
00:05:38.960 --> 00:05:43.290
Cryosphere

93
00:05:43.290 --> 00:06:16.960