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[Music]

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>>air-LUSI stands for the Airborne Lunar Spectral
Irradiance mission.

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What we're measuring is the amount of light
at various wavelengths that are being reflected

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off the Moon.

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We want to know this because we essentially
are using the Moon as a benchmark so that

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Earth-observing satellites can turn and look
at the moon and set the scale on the amount

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of light they're measuring from the Earth.

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So it's kind of an indirect way of actually
improving our understanding of the Earth.

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[Music/Background noise]

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>>Both computers are up and running.

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Artemis has giving us a power-on.

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Ok, so now we're going to start logging data.

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So it's sending code to Artemis.

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>>So we've set it up here, even before we put
it in the plane.

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We have a system that simulates it being in
the airplane, so that we can test it all out.

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In the distance you can see a disc of light.

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That's our Moon simulator that we use to calibrate
the telescope.

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>>We measure the Moon's brightness by using
a spectrometer, which is actually taking light

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from a telescope that is pointed at the Moon.

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What typically becomes a problem is that you
have to contend with the atmosphere.

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The atmosphere actually affects your measurement
greatly.

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And so we have to actually put that type of
instrumentation on the ER-2, which flies up

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to 70,000 feet, and gives us a viewpoint of
the Moon above 90% of the atmosphere, almost

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the same view of the Moon as Earth-Orbiting
satellites would have.

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[Music]

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[ER-2 taking off]

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>>Ok-

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>>it's showtime.

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>>in a minute, he'll flip the switch.

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>>Earth-observing satellites, we try and calibrate
them before they go up, but the calibration

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always changes; they slowly degrade being
in the space environment, and they currently

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use the Moon to trend that degradation, but
if we could put a good absolute calibration

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on the Moon, that would allow them to do an
improvement on their current calibration scheme

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and would also allow them to inter-compare
well.

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[Music/background noise]

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>>Ok, success!

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>>So there are a lot of benefits to having all
the earth observing satellites have this common

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calibration source.

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>>Every instrument that's been launched into
space that looks at the Moon can benefit from

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this because knowing what the Moon is, since
the Moon doesn't change, helps us both in