NASA Goddard's Recipe for Baked Spacecraft

Narration: Katy Mersmann

Transcript:

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If you want to make a spacecraft,

you've got to break a few eggs.

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No, that's not right.

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You've got to bake for a few days.

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That's it. So follow along for our recipe for homemade satellite.

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First up, collect your ingredients.

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We're making an ocean,

land, and atmosphere

monitoring satellite

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called PACE. So we'll gather

two polarimeters, which measure

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the polarization state of light

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as it travels through water

and atmospheric aerosols.

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And one Ocean Color Instrument,

which will measure light reflected

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from the ocean surface to

study tiny ocean creatures

called phytoplankton,

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as well as atmospheric

properties above the ocean.

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Wrap these individual components

in special spacecraft foil.

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These blankets for satellites

help keep the instruments

that need to be hot, hot,

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and those that need

to be cold, cold

while they're in space.

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We make them special

right here at Goddard.

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Place the instruments

in the Thermal Vacuum

Chamber or TVAC.

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This chamber mimics

some of the extremes

the satellite will experience.

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Space can be very cold,

but sunlight can heat

the spacecraft up.

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This test ensures the spacecraft

and its instruments will handle both.

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It also creates a vacuum,

like the vacuum of space,

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to make sure the satellite

can withstand those pressures.

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We'll bake the satellite

components at a variety

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of temperatures and

pressures for several days.

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When your timer goes off,

remove PACE from TVAC.

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It's time for the last step of

building a spacecraft: Assembly!

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We'll install PACE's instruments

to get ready for launch in 2024

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and a new view of our home

planet's ocean and atmosphere.