Video Descriptive Text for Leaders in Lidar | Chapter 3: Take the Next Steps

Narration:

Transcript:

00:00 Collage of newspaper headlines, the center of which reads “Spacecraft’s Data Yield First Detailed Map of Mars”

00:03 Close up of Mars topographic maps on the cover of Science magazine

00:09 David E. Smith on a video call

00:11 Shots of engineers building a large telescope, testing laser alignment in a lab

00:16 Close up of a green laser slowly rotating toward camera

00:17 An animated spacecraft emits a laser beam to the surface of Mercury

00:20 Old footage of a laser assembly with lots of green laser light

00:21 Bunny suited engineers inspect an instrument with a large silver inverted cone in a clean room

00:22 Visualization of the Moon with contour lines in green and blue

00:25 Fullscreen graphic of series and episode title, reading “Leaders in Lidar, Chapter 3: Take the Next Steps” in yellow blocky glowing font. The background is a blue grid with multicolored laser beams flying toward the camera and various images of people and instruments swirling around the edges

00:31 Fullscreen graphic showing a series of satellite and instrument schematics with labels reading “MOLA-1,” “MOLA-2,” “SLA,” “LVIS,” “GLAS,” “MLA” and “LOLA,” with yellow evolutionary lines connecting them

00:43 Old animation of the Mars Global Surveyor emitting laser beams toward the surface of Mars’ icy pole

00:44 Old animation of the Mars Global Surveyor orbiting over the limb of Mars with a label reading “winter”

00:46 Old animation zooming out from Mars’ pole with elevation information

00:48 Old animation of multicolored topographic map of Mars’ southern hemisphere as Mars slowly rotates

00:49 Old footage of David E. Smith in an interview with purple tinted maps of Mars’ southern pole and a graphic appears reading “David E. Smith, MOLA Principal Investigator”

00:53 Old footage of Smith and Maria Zuber in a room with large screens displaying the same Mars’ maps of the southern poles as they both point to features on Mars

01:02 Jay Zwally appears on a video call and a graphic appears reading “Jay Zwally, ICESat Project Scientist”

01:11 Old black-and-white photograph of about 25 scientists in a room and then a zoom in of the same photograph that highlights a younger Jay Zwally

01:18 Old photo of younger Jay Zwally dressed in a red parka in a cold icy environment with snow and ice in his facial hair

01:25 Zwally on a video call

01:28 Old footage of an animated rotating Earth with retro style lettering reading “EOS, Earth Observing System”

01:35 Old footage from the same EOS program with Piers Sellers speaking in front of a rotating multicolored Earth and a graphic reading “Piers Sellers, Climate Scientist”

01:42 Old footage from the same EOS program showing a grid of lines slowly covering a rotating Earth

01:47 Zwally on a video call

01:50 Jim Abshire on a video call with a graphic reading “Jim Abshire, GLAS Instrument Scientist”

01:52 Close up of an old official document reading “Recommendations for an Ice Satellite (ICESAT) Study for the Ocean Dynamics Program” and a sections highlighted in green reading “March 22, 1978” and “The purpose of this memo is to recommend that Goddard take the lead in study and planning of a satellite mission for ice monitoring and research.” and “A strong Goddard involvement in an ICESAT mission would be very important to our ice program for both ocean dynamics and weather and climate.”

02:02 Old footage of a green laser assembly with someone pointing to different components

02:05 Old footage of a close up of a different green laser assembly

02:07 Animation of the ICESat satellite orbiting in space with the reflection of Earth in its primary telescope mirror, followed by a shot of the satellite orbiting with Earth in the background

02:12 Animation of a profile view of ICESat satellite emitting laser pulses toward Earth, followed by a translucent wave of purple light bouncing back to ICESat

02:14 Old footage showing engineers in a cleanroom inspecting the GLAS instrument, which has a large circular telescope and a large box wrapped in gold in the foreground

02:15 Old footage showing engineers on ladders inspecting the GLAS instrument in an upright position in a cleanroom as the camera tilts upwards

02:19 Bryan Blair in a video call, graphic reading “Bryan Blair ICESat Algorithms Team”

02:23 Old poster of ICESat orbiting over Earth emitting a wave of beams with text reading “Geoscience Laser Altimeter System,” “600 km Polar Orbit” and “Laser Pulses, 1064 nm, 532 nm, Wavelength. A yellow line appears and underlines “Geoscience Laser Altimeter System” and a connecting line reading “*Lidar instrument on ICESat”

02:31 Jan McGarry on a video call with a graphic reading “Jan McGarry, ICESat Receiver Algorithm Engineer”

02:32 Old official document reading “GLAS Flight Science Data Selection Algorithms for the Altimeter (1064 nm)” with several names on it

02:37 Jim Abshire on a video call

02:40 Old animation of the inside of GLAS with green laser light traveling through and being emitted

02:47 Old footage of Zwally speaking on a panel for a press briefing with a blue curtain behind him

02:54 Old footage in several shots of the ICESat launch and a graphic reading “January 12, 2003”

03:11 Image of a curtain of elevation data arcing over Earth with a graphic reading “February 20, 2003, First Day of GLAS Operation”

03:15 Abshire on a video call

03:17 Fullscreen graphic of a graph with the label “GLAS On-Orbit Laser Energy” and a red data line trending downward as time progresses

03:24 Abshire on a video call

03:32 Photo of the GLAS Laser Transmitter assembly with several small boxes and wires superimposed over a bluish background

03:39 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview with the image of ICESat-2 behind him and a graphic reading “John Cavanaugh, Instrument Systems Engineer”

03:45 Macroscopic photo showing metallic buildup on the wires with the label reading “Indium Solder”

03:50 Macroscopic photo showing a closer look at the metallic buildup on the wires as the camera pans across the photo with a green background

03:56 Old animation of the inside of GLAS showing the green laser path through the instrument

04:05 Abshire on a video call

04:12 Old animation of the ICESat satellite cruising above Earth, the solar panels then rotate

04:19 Fullscreen graphic with the title “ICESat Operating Schedule” showing a gridded schedule of when and how long the three GLAS lasers operated over 7 years

04:29 Visualization of Greenland overlaid with multicolored data indicating change in elevation

04:34 Visualization of Arctic sea ice changing with the label “Winter 2005”

04:37 Animation showing a profile of thick sea ice with a green laser beam approaching the sea ice, which then produces a translucent purple layer of height data and a label reading “Freeboard: thickness of sea ice protruding above the water level”

04:44 Old animation of the ICESat satellite traveling over the pole, laying in green lines of elevation measurements

04:49 Abshire on a video call

04:53 Visualization of North and South Pole with many data lines radiating across each pole with the label reading “ICESat Polar Elevations” and quickly changing date ranges

04:59 Old footage of the surface of Mercury taken by Mariner 10

05:06 Old animation of a wireframe representation of Mercury

05:11 Photo of Sean Solomon smiling, standing in front of a large black wrapped spacecraft component with the graphic reading “Sean Solomon, MESSENGER Principal Investigator, Columbia University”

05:15 Old footage showing an approach of Mercury then a view of the surface of Mercury

05:25 David E. Smith on a video call with a graphic reading “David E. Smith, MLA Principal Investigator”

05:28 Animations showing the MESSENGER spacecraft passing by the camera over Mercury

05:33 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

05:36 Animation of MESSENGER spacecraft headed away from camera around Mercury as the Sun faces camera

05:39 Xiaoli Sun on a video call with graphic reading “Xiaoli Sun, Lidar Instrument Scientist”

05:42 Animation of MESSENGER spacecraft passing by closely to camera, the bright white center of the spacecraft glowing from the sunlight

05:46 Jan McGarry on a video call

05:49 Animation of MESSENGER spacecraft gliding away from camera while it faces the Sun with Mercury visible underneath

05:58 Fullscreen graphic of an outline of the MLA instrument with the dimensions 7.4 kg, 25 cm wide and 28 cm tall over a blue grid background. The camera pulls out to put MLA next to the larger MOLA instrument, which has the dimensions 26 kg, 70 cm wide and 70 cm tall

06:06 David E. Smith on a video call

06:12 Photograph of the inside of the MLA instrument with lots of very thin wires and small circuitry and a label showing the length being 12 cm. This photo is over a blue-green background with images of Mercury faintly visible

06:16 David E. Smith on a video call

06:23 Timelapse video of the MESSENGER spacecraft on an engineering harness as it rotates and flips as engineers install items and inspect parts of it in a cleanroom

06:29 Animation of MESSENGER as seen from the backside with the MLA instrument visible and encircled in yellow with the label reading “MLA”

06:33 David E. Smith on a video call

06:35 Two images of the surface of Mercury with multicolored topographic data showing many craters and valleys

06:44 Image of MLA topography of the surface of Mercury showing a dotted yellow line indicating the path and crash site of MESSENGER with the label reading “MESSENGER Impact Site, April 30, 2015”

06:49 Full global view of MLA topography of Mercury as the planet slowly rotates, which then slowly dissolves into an image of the Moon undergoing an eclipse with the text reading “January 14, 2004”

07:02 President George W. Bush speaking at NASA Headquarters with many people in suits in the audience listening

07:19 David E. Smith on video call

07:21 Xiaoli Sun on video call

07:26 David E. Smith on video call

07:39 Old footage of engineers looking at CAD models of early LRO spacecraft design on a computer

07:41 Old footage of a green laser mounted and slowly rotating

07:44 Footage of John Cavanaugh in a bunny suit making adjustments to the green laser in a lab

07:49 Old footage of an engineer pointing out the LRO spacecraft’s proposed instruments in a physical model in many bright colors

07:52 David E. Smith on video call

07:55 Visualization of a section of the Moon with a crater in the middle as colorful data sweeps over the surface revealing different features and highlights

08:02 Footage of the LOLA instrument in profile, which looks like a silver cone protruding out from the electronics box with lots of wires

08:08 Animation of the LRO spacecraft hovering in orbit over the surface of the Moon as it emits 5 glowing red laser pulses to the surface, which then bounce back to the spacecraft

08:14 Visualization showing the 5 beam spots of LOLA overlaid on the Moon’s surface. The camera then tracks along the trail of beam spots as they head off to the Moon’s horizon

08:23 Old footage of the launch of LRO from the tower with the label reading “June 18, 2009”

08:28 Footage of the separation of LRO from the rocket with lots of gold blanketed components exposed to space

08:33 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

08:36 Xiaoli Sun on video call

08:46 Footage of engineers in bunny suits preparing the installation of the LOLA instrument in a cleanroom

08:50 Footage of engineers in bunny suits in a cleanroom discussing something. John Cavanaugh is visible in the middle listening to another engineer.

08:52 Jim Abshire on video call

08:54 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

08:55 Footage of a bunny suited engineer lifting the LOLA instrument to install it on the spacecraft in a cleanroom

08:59 Slow zoom in on a photo of the blanketed and installed LOLA instrument while engineers surround it

09:04 Xiaoli Sun on video call

09:05 Footage of a high angle view of the engineers discussing something together as they stand in a group in a cleanroom near the LRO spacecraft

09:14 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

09:16 Visualization showing the Moon in orbit along with LRO in orbit around the Moon with a black grid and starry background

09:21 Animation of LRO cruising over the Moon with lots of time and location data

09:26 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

09:28 Xiaoli Sun on video call

09:33 John Cavanaugh in a studio interview

09:35 Visualization showing full disk of the Moon with multicolored topographic data painted on the Moon’s South Pole. The camera rotates and pushes into the Moon as more topographic data fills in on the Moon

10:00 Fullscreen graphic showing outlines of the GLAS, MLA and LOLA instruments and the label “Years of Instrument Operation.” GLAS reads “1.98 billion measurements, 2003 to 2009.” MLA reads “41.9 million measurements, 2011 to 2015.” LOLA reads “6.95 billion measurements, 2009 to 2022”

10:10 David E. Smith on video call

10:15 Yellow blocky text reading “Coming up next” appears over darkened and grainy aerial footage of a tropical forest

10:20 Jim Garvin in a studio interview

10:22 Archival film footage of Apollo lander hovering over the Moon’s surface

10:23 Footage of the surface of Mars taken as the Perseverance Rover descended

10:24 Aerial footage of snowy mountains, valleys and glaciers

10:25 Aerial footage of a green coniferous forest

10:26 The NASA logo, a blue circle with a red stylized arrow and a white orbit path around white letters reading “NASA”