1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:03,000 The laser: a useful tool 2 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:05,766 in industry, science and medicine. 3 00:00:06,133 --> 00:00:11,200 When it comes down to it, a laser is just a light with extreme focus. 4 00:00:11,200 --> 00:00:15,366 It's both elegantly simple and extremely complicated, 5 00:00:15,366 --> 00:00:19,133 and it changed the way we literally see the dimensions of our Earth, 6 00:00:19,733 --> 00:00:24,333 our Moon, the planets, asteroids and beyond. 7 00:00:25,200 --> 00:00:27,433 But it was a long road to get there. 8 00:00:27,433 --> 00:00:32,666 [music] 9 00:00:34,133 --> 00:00:37,433 Back in the 1980s at NASA, using lasers to measure 10 00:00:37,433 --> 00:00:42,300 physical features from space was too experimental, too risky. 11 00:00:42,300 --> 00:00:45,833 Fortunately, it was also a time of change and risk- 12 00:00:45,833 --> 00:00:48,333 taking at Goddard Space Flight Center. 13 00:00:49,100 --> 00:00:50,366 In the 1960s, 14 00:00:50,366 --> 00:00:52,166 there was probably not much question 15 00:00:52,166 --> 00:00:54,200 that when a science or applications mission came up, 16 00:00:54,233 --> 00:00:57,233 for the most part, it went to Goddard 17 00:00:57,233 --> 00:01:01,000 and we've got to do a better job of selling ourselves 18 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,700 and being sure that we're responsive to what Headquarters is looking for 19 00:01:05,966 --> 00:01:09,600 in terms of the competition between ourselves and other NASA centers. 20 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,766 I came here as hired by the center director, 21 00:01:12,766 --> 00:01:16,000 Noel Hinners, in '85, and he said, So what do you want to do? 22 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,900 I said, I want to map the topography of Mars, you know, at this scale, not 23 00:01:19,900 --> 00:01:21,400 the scale of buildings. 24 00:01:22,466 --> 00:01:23,433 How do we do that? 25 00:01:23,433 --> 00:01:25,900 He goes, Well, we've got folks. They do stuff. 26 00:01:25,900 --> 00:01:29,700 And so I met a few of them very quickly, and that was Jim Abshire, John 27 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:31,633 Degnan, Jack Bufton. 28 00:01:31,633 --> 00:01:36,166 We started working with laser remote sensing instrumentation. 29 00:01:36,433 --> 00:01:40,366 It was the same type of instrumentation that communicated 30 00:01:40,366 --> 00:01:44,033 from ground to satellites in satellite laser ranging. 31 00:01:45,033 --> 00:01:47,933 We could do a little airborne laser remote 32 00:01:47,933 --> 00:01:52,400 sensing, and Garvin and I sort of found each other through that. 33 00:01:52,666 --> 00:01:55,966 You know, I said, Come on down to Wallops and we'll fly this. 34 00:01:55,966 --> 00:02:00,233 And he said, Oh, topography, Earth, yes, I want to measure it. 35 00:02:01,033 --> 00:02:03,900 We literally took a T-39 training aircraft that was 36 00:02:03,900 --> 00:02:07,266 put together by the Wallops team really impressively 37 00:02:08,033 --> 00:02:12,100 and bolted in a big telescope with a laser 38 00:02:12,433 --> 00:02:15,700 and went flying out in northern Arizona where I had done some field work. 39 00:02:15,933 --> 00:02:19,300 So out there we have Meteor Crater, we have volcanoes 40 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:22,100 and we have the Grand Canyon and other the Painted Desert. 41 00:02:22,433 --> 00:02:25,200 So we figured in one place we could study all this. 42 00:02:25,966 --> 00:02:30,933 And it was on the strength of that, that Jim Garvin became interested 43 00:02:30,933 --> 00:02:35,666 and put him in a position to when Dave Smith found 44 00:02:35,666 --> 00:02:41,333 that his radar altimeter was canceled because it was $30 million instead of ten. 45 00:02:41,900 --> 00:02:43,800 They kept talking to me about, you know, 46 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,100 look, we're really close to getting a laser altimeter working. 47 00:02:47,100 --> 00:02:50,866 And I've been in lasers actually for 20 odd years before that, 48 00:02:50,866 --> 00:02:52,066 if you know what I mean. 49 00:02:52,066 --> 00:02:54,100 But laser ranging from the ground to spacecraft. 50 00:02:54,100 --> 00:02:58,433 So I was very familiar with the lasers and I wasn't averse to it, on the contrary. 51 00:02:59,100 --> 00:03:02,200 But NASA offered me a situation that said, look, 52 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,300 we've got a certain amount of money for you. 53 00:03:04,433 --> 00:03:06,600 We're willing to spend $10 million on this instrument. 54 00:03:07,366 --> 00:03:09,933 But, you know, there has to be some sort of competition. 55 00:03:09,933 --> 00:03:12,133 You need to choose which instrument 56 00:03:12,133 --> 00:03:14,366 you would like to fly to measure the altimetry. 57 00:03:14,700 --> 00:03:16,333 And there were four candidates. 58 00:03:17,466 --> 00:03:21,200 Three of them are radar and one the laser that we call MOLA 59 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,866 There was no one in their right mind that would bid 60 00:03:24,866 --> 00:03:26,133 a laser altimeter. 61 00:03:26,133 --> 00:03:27,433 Seriously. 62 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:28,966 And I was all gung ho. 63 00:03:28,966 --> 00:03:31,900 I was a young guy, you know, no gray hair. 64 00:03:31,900 --> 00:03:33,466 There was a lot of reticence. 65 00:03:33,466 --> 00:03:37,766 There was so little trust that this could be done. 66 00:03:38,100 --> 00:03:41,433 NASA's made a monumental achievement 67 00:03:41,433 --> 00:03:45,900 in both radar and visible near infrared 68 00:03:45,900 --> 00:03:49,100 imaging of the surfaces of Earth and other planets. 69 00:03:49,466 --> 00:03:51,700 But those are flat field views. 70 00:03:51,700 --> 00:03:52,733 And the missing dimension, 71 00:03:52,733 --> 00:03:56,400 the hidden dimension, which drives where energy goes, where the water flows, 72 00:03:57,033 --> 00:03:58,133 you know, 73 00:03:58,133 --> 00:04:00,533 stability of landscapes is the third dimension. 74 00:04:00,533 --> 00:04:01,933 We take for granted the map. 75 00:04:02,300 --> 00:04:04,966 Sometimes you need the map to do with beyond the map. 76 00:04:04,966 --> 00:04:08,000 Making those maps with that crucial third dimension is 77 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,633 what laser altimetry or LiDAR is best at. 78 00:04:11,633 --> 00:04:13,200 And over the decades 79 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:17,600 Goddard's gotten pretty good at explaining just how laser altimetry works. 80 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,100 This is a laser altimeter. 81 00:04:19,100 --> 00:04:21,466 What it does is it sends a short pulse of light. 82 00:04:21,466 --> 00:04:25,600 From a moving platform that's observing a surface, an airplane, a satellite. 83 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:27,433 Gets a reflection straight back off the surface. 84 00:04:27,433 --> 00:04:31,466 We record that reflection and the time very precisely. 85 00:04:31,466 --> 00:04:34,600 Of the pulse from the spacecraft down to the surface and back again. 86 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:37,133 Which allows us to measure the range to the surface. 87 00:04:37,133 --> 00:04:39,600 When that's done repeatedly in orbit, you can build up a map. 88 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:41,766 [music hit] 89 00:04:41,766 --> 00:04:42,766 The fast rate of 90 00:04:42,766 --> 00:04:45,800 light pulses and the small footprint allow lidar 91 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:49,433 to measure with a much finer scale than traditional radars. 92 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,700 They had a big review, and the leading radar guy 93 00:04:53,700 --> 00:04:58,200 that had flown radars to Venus, Gordon Pettengill, at the end said, well, 94 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:00,100 I don't know about you folks, 95 00:05:00,100 --> 00:05:01,700 the laser is better. 96 00:05:01,700 --> 00:05:05,333 In time, Goddard would become a leader in lidar 97 00:05:05,333 --> 00:05:09,766 in mapping our Earth and planets with unprecedented precision. 98 00:05:09,766 --> 00:05:13,666 But for now, they had to actually build the first one. 99 00:05:13,666 --> 00:05:16,266 The requirements were, of course, we were at a much higher orbit, 100 00:05:16,300 --> 00:05:20,500 and orbit was faster than going around the Moon so we needed a larger telescope, 101 00:05:20,500 --> 00:05:25,066 needed a more sensitive detector, we needed more laser energy. 102 00:05:25,433 --> 00:05:29,666 So in order to put our concept together, we had to gather a team 103 00:05:31,233 --> 00:05:31,733 and then we 104 00:05:31,733 --> 00:05:35,533 had to convince the management that this was not a crazy idea 105 00:05:35,533 --> 00:05:39,166 and that we actually had a realistic chance of making this happen. 106 00:05:39,533 --> 00:05:41,000 We worked a lot of hours. 107 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:42,966 I can remember 108 00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:47,433 Jim talking about, you know, working ten-hour days, and I was doing about the same. 109 00:05:47,433 --> 00:05:50,500 But, you know, it really it really didn't matter 110 00:05:50,500 --> 00:05:53,600 because it was so exciting 111 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:58,000 to be working on something that was going to actually map Mars. 112 00:05:58,233 --> 00:06:02,233 I was fresh out of getting my master's degree in computer engineering. 113 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:03,600 I was young. 114 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,800 I mean, I was it was I had to really dive in deep. 115 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:12,000 I had to spend about two years working with the team on algorithms. 116 00:06:12,266 --> 00:06:15,866 How were we going to find the surface of the of Mars, how we were going 117 00:06:15,900 --> 00:06:19,533 to track it, how we're going to compute all the precise ranges. 118 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,200 And we were just, we were sort of making our way. 119 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,033 We were, we were defining the rules as we went. 120 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:28,500 We finished the instrument pretty much on time. 121 00:06:28,500 --> 00:06:31,466 And certainly, as they said in the letter to me, look, 122 00:06:31,466 --> 00:06:35,633 if you don't make it on time and in budget, we will fly a brick instead. 123 00:06:35,866 --> 00:06:38,500 Okay? We're not going to hold this mission up. 124 00:06:39,266 --> 00:06:40,933 I mean, I knew about planetary missions. 125 00:06:40,933 --> 00:06:42,966 They have to go within certain windows. 126 00:06:42,966 --> 00:06:44,933 But anyway, we made it alright. 127 00:06:44,933 --> 00:06:47,100 [music] 128 00:06:47,100 --> 00:06:51,966 Five, four, three, two, one. 129 00:06:52,700 --> 00:06:53,866 And liftoff. 130 00:06:53,866 --> 00:06:55,433 Liftoff of the Titan III 131 00:06:55,433 --> 00:06:59,933 rocket with the Mars Observer and America's return to the Red Planet. 132 00:07:00,533 --> 00:07:03,300 And the vehicle has cleared the tower. 133 00:07:03,300 --> 00:07:06,533 We've got X-band launch at Canberra. 134 00:07:06,533 --> 00:07:08,433 All right! 135 00:07:08,433 --> 00:07:14,666 [applause] 136 00:07:14,666 --> 00:07:16,166 A very happy crew. 137 00:07:17,466 --> 00:07:20,633 The Mars Observer is on its way to Mars. 138 00:07:21,700 --> 00:07:24,333 Trajectory is right on the money. 139 00:07:24,333 --> 00:07:29,700 [music] 140 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:30,966 We've assumed 141 00:07:30,966 --> 00:07:35,333 that the spacecraft properly executed its orbit insertion sequence, 142 00:07:35,333 --> 00:07:38,466 and we presume the spacecraft is in orbit about Mars. 143 00:07:38,466 --> 00:07:43,433 But we have no positive confirmation of that because as for the last three days, 144 00:07:43,433 --> 00:07:45,933 we have no communication with the spacecraft. 145 00:07:45,933 --> 00:07:47,700 --That is to say you simply don't know what happened to that. 146 00:07:47,700 --> 00:07:50,100 It could be in orbit. It could have flown past the planet. 147 00:07:50,100 --> 00:07:52,233 What are the scientists doing to relieve the tension in there? 148 00:07:52,233 --> 00:07:55,666 Screaming loudly, probably. [laughter] 149 00:07:55,833 --> 00:07:58,900 We still don't have communication with the spacecraft. 150 00:07:58,900 --> 00:08:03,833 However, we are very hopeful and we're cautiously optimistic 151 00:08:03,833 --> 00:08:07,100 that communication will be restored-- --Every day without communications 152 00:08:07,100 --> 00:08:10,200 clearly lessens our probability of success. 153 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:12,466 --Though, you know, we give up? 154 00:08:12,466 --> 00:08:14,566 We have not given up. 155 00:08:14,566 --> 00:08:21,133 [music] 156 00:08:21,133 --> 00:08:24,066 But I was not concerned about the spacecraft. 157 00:08:24,066 --> 00:08:27,000 It never crossed my mind the spacecraft would let us down. 158 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,033 So this was a blow in the sense of, wow, 159 00:08:30,033 --> 00:08:32,066 something I completely didn't expect.