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[jet engine revving up]

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[sonic boom]

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[thunder/rain/jet flyover]

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[music]

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[coyote yipping]

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[elephant door opening]

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>> Robert Rivera: Engineering
is something I've always wanted

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to do.

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I originally started off looking
towards computer engineering

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but then eventually
transitioned to aerospace.

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What drew me to aerospace is
the fact that we're not limited

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to just mechanical engineering
or just electrical engineering.

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We handle everything that
has to do with airplanes.

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[Global Hawk taking off]

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[music]

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>> I'm Robert Rivera and I'm
the Lead Operations Engineer

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on Global Hawk.

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NASA's Global Hawks
are set up primarily

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for doing airborne research.

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All the sensors that are
normally on the airplane

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for the military mission
have been removed, so we

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fly just the payloads that are
required to do the mission.

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>>...Support, NASA 872...I need
to set up a left hand over here

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for a few minutes just
to collect some data.

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>>Copy that, thanks.

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>> Robert Rivera: One advantage
of doing this air based research

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that we do is we can get
to parts of the world

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where we can't put up
ground base systems.

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A lot of our research
happens out over the Atlantic

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or over the Pacific,
looking at the atmosphere,

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looking at the different
types of chemicals

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up in the tropopause, what kind
of pollutants we're seeing...

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we can spend 14 hours over
storm and watch it transition

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from a tropical storm
to a hurricane.

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It also allows us to go fly
satellite tracks and be able

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to calibrate the
weather satellites

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that are flying overhead
so we can verify

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that they're giving us
correct amount of information.

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So then we can better improve
the models of how we forecast

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the weather of the world.

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[music]

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>> There are conflicting
requirements on this campaign.

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And we're just going to have to
let the forecasters duke it out

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and workout with--

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>> An operations engineer is
essentially the aircraft manager

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here.

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We're responsible for the
configuration of the airplane,

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the air worthiness of the
aircraft and making sure

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that all the maintenance
is accomplished

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in a reasonable manner within
the schedule that's given to us.

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We're not specializing to
a particular discipline.

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We're allowed to basically
cross disciplines and work

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where we need to, to do the job.

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>> We'll come down and out of
the way with this.

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>> Robert Rivera:
What I've been doing

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on the Global Hawk is
integrating payloads

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onto the airplane.

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I'm basically given a payload.

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Here's the mounting points,

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here's where we're
putting it on the airplane, and

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then I have to figure out how
to put it on the airplane.

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Then cut the work orders to
have the shops build the parts

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and then get the technicians

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to install the parts
on the airplane.

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[music]

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We have two primary payloads
that we put on this airplane.

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The first type is an
in-situ instrument.

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The second type are called
remote sensing instruments.

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The CAST program we're currently
involved in is two instruments.

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One is a cloud particle
measurement instrument

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that actually takes
in cloud particles

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and through lasers
looks at the shape

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of the particles in the clouds.

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The other one is a
remote sensing instrument.

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It actually looks at the sun
glint off of the water and

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breaks down what's in the air
column that it's looking through

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what kind of chemicals are
there, the methane levels,

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the carbon dioxide levels.

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My part of the GHOST design was
taking the Northrop engineering

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installation and
adding in the cooling

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and ventilation system
for the instrument.

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You'll see here on my design is
that, you know, the air comes

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in to the airplane goes through
their computer for cooling,

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and then through a manifold,
which, the NO2 vents out,

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the liquid nitrogen vents out,
which is what they use to cool

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the instrument.

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[music]

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A lot of our science
teams that we get

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in here are not aircraft people.

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They build to laboratory
standards,

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not aircraft standards.

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One of the biggest challenges
is solving that difference

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between what they bring us and
what we can put on the airplane,

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and how to safely put something
that's built to one standard

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on the airplane and meet
the standards we have.

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>> It's in the hole there.

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>> OK.

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[background discussion]

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>>This one isn't yet.

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>> Yeah.

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>> OK.

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>> Mark where the foot's
going to go.

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[ Music ]

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>> Robert Rivera: That's
where your ATR is going to go.

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I know you guys are anxious

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to see this all up
there and flying.

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>> Yeah.

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>> It's the end of a long design
process for us.

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>> Robert Rivera: We're
basically using up every nook

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and cranny in the
airplane we can find,

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getting these instruments,
figuring out where to put them

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and making them all fit.

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Very much like Tetris.

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[music/instruments being
installed]

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>> Larry you want to pull
the pod your way?

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...And a quarter turn on the
back.

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Let's tighten the
outboard front again.

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Essentially what we're doing
is we're putting preload

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into the AITTS instrument pod.

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For flight what it does is
improves stiffness of the pod

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when we're flying so it
doesn't move around too much.

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[music/power drills]

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[engine noise]

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>> We got to roll call real
quick...two pilots are here...

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>> Robert Rivera: Typically
on a flight day I act as one

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of the mission directors
for the flight.

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>> Mission Director- I assume
that's going to be you?

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>> Myself and
Crystal will be in training.

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>> Our job as mission
directors is working

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with the scientists
and with the pilots.

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So when the scientists have
changing requirements we're the

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one who gets them first.

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And then we'll work with them

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to make sure they're
what the pilots can do.

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And then we pass them
on to the pilots.

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And we negotiate with the pilots

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to get what we can
for the scientists.

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>> Sounds like we're good to go.

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[music]

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>> Door is up, power is up,
vehicle is moving...

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>> NASA 872, roger, hold short
Runway 22 Right.

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>> Runway 22 Right, we'd like to
use 22 Left.

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>> Okay mission we're on the
runway and setting up for takeoff.

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>> Roger, we're still
go for takeoff.

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>> Okay, here we go.

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[music]

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[Global Hawk engine revving up]

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>> Sixty knots.

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>> Copy.

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[Global Hawk taking off]

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>> Vehicle is airborne.

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>> NASA 872 copies.

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>> Have a good flight.

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>> Robert Rivera: We're
also basically responsible

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for assisting the pilots in
any emergencies that happen

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on the airplane, any flight
planning that needs to be done.

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We do have a real
time downlink,

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so the scientists are
always looking at the data,

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if we ever change our mission
plan based off the data they're

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seeing come down real time.

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>> We're 15,000.

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>> 15,000.

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>> And for the cards, we're on
M2, step Mike 6.

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>> And I'm showing DC 13 and IR
13 off.

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>> Robert Rivera: We're also
the ones that have controls

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of the payload system for
turning on instruments

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and turning off instruments,
up in the front room.

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>> DC12 on please.

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>> DC12 on.

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[music]

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[Global Hawk landing]

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>> Robert Rivera: And once
we finished one campaign,

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we're prepping for the
next campaign or cleaning

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up doing maintenance
on the airplane.

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So we're pretty much constantly
busy from one to the next.

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Basically the favorite part of
my job is the whole process,

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seeing a project or
an integration effort

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from beginning to end.

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Basically being able
to take something

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that may never have been
designed to go on an airplane

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and then seeing it flying in
a reasonable amount of time.

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What I like about NASA is
that they're doing things

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that you would not
necessarily see done

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in private industry because
there's really no cost benefit

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to them.

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NASA can do the airborne
research,

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and improve our models to
better predict the weather,

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so we can get people out of the
way when storms come through.

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We can better predict how strong
a hurricane is going to get

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so you can make sure the
proper personnel are in place

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for response to that hurricane.

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We gather so much data, it takes years to process all the data,

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but all that will eventually end up in the public domain.

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I would tell kids
that are interested

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in engineering is learn your
math, learn your science,

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be interested, take
things apart,

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put things together,
work with your hands.