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[Music]

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in the 1960s the united states decided

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to venture forth to the moon's surface

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this new vantage point of space allowed

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us to look back at earth's surface in

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wonder

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photographs taken by astronauts on the

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apollo and gemini missions fascinated

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the world and inspired a few to ask the

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question

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could space be the solution for regular

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earth observations

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one piece of technology dating to 1968

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has since defined earth remote sensing

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from space

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[Music]

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it was initially doubted but the little

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scanner that could divide all cynics to

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give us what we know today as the

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landsat program

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this instrument called the

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multi-spectral scanner or mss

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was designed and championed by virginia

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t norwood earning her the moniker the

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mother of landsat

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the landsat system is an amazing one it

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makes you wonder if the mss system

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hadn't been on board and operating what

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would have happened to landsat

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virginia norwood graduated from mit with

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a degree in mathematical physics

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soon after she developed a radar

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reflector that discovered previously

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untrackable winds

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her continuous successes got her a

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position at hughes aircraft company

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she was amongst the first women to join

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their technical staff where she

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pioneered the first space-based

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multi-spectral scanner

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she said i was kind of known as the

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person who could solve impossible

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problems so people would bring things to

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norwood was working at hughes when nasa

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initiated the earth resources technology

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satellite mission in 1967.

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as scientists at the university of

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michigan and purdue demonstrated the

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future of land imaging was

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multi-spectral

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they used this developing technology to

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assess the planet's surface on a more

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local scale

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[Music]

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multi-spectral devices like the mss

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measure energy from the electromagnetic

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spectrum including both visible and

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infrared light

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the sensor acts passively recording

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certain wavelengths of light reflected

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off the earth's surface these

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measurements are recorded digitally and

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transmitted to ground stations to be

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analyzed pixel by pixel something that

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however nasa and usgs both had

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reservations the mss was new technology

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and they favored the return beam viticon

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the rbv

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designed by rca to map the moon for the

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apollo missions

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the rbv used television tube technology

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to create a system of cameras each

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filtered to a specific set of

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wavelengths or bands

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they were limited to the blue green

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the system was analog limited and soon

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to be dated so how to convince them to

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try multi-spectral technology

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people felt much more comfortable with

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that even if they didn't understand the

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ramifications and so we felt that there

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was a real bias because of that

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with the help of other innovators like

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jack lansing and web howe the prototype

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designed by virginia norwood was created

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for only a hundred thousand dollars less

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than a million dollars today

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her original designs included a scanner

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that looked at six bands of the

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electromagnetic spectrum

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however because the more trusted rbv

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system was heavier and larger taking up

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more of the satellite she had to cut

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and really only a tiny corner of the

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spacecraft was allotted to the tiny

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little multi-spectral scanner and no one

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knew precisely how it was going to

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perform whether it would even work

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whether the mirror would work whether

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the digitized data would work from the

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get-go her superiors were saying

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oh

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you know hand-wringing that this was

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going to be a problem

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there was so much about it that was

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novel and there was so much skepticism

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to allay nasa and usgs jitters about the

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much-doubted scanner the prototype was

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stuck onto the back of a truck and taken

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on a california road trip

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this was because

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george olaska said

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nobody believes that scandal will work i

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think you better

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you better give us some assurance and so

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jack lansing and a couple of people took

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it out on the truck

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and uh

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he was an outdoors type anyway so he

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just thought it was great to get tahoe

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the images were spectacular

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the half dome image still hangs on

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norwood's wall today

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on july 23 1972 the earth resources

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technology satellite launched into orbit

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just 14 days after launch a power surge

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caused by the rbv electronics physically

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rocked the spacecraft and the rbv was

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immediately shut off

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the first cloud-free image from the mss

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was the washita mountains in

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southeastern oklahoma

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i looked at those images and tears came

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to my eyes and i said

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it's everything we hoped for

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and more than we expected it was one of

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it was i could say

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a highlight of my career and one of the

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major highlights of my life was to see

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that and to see that it worked and to

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think about what we could do with it

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virginia norway incredibly innovative

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pulled off something that nobody thought

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would occur

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virginia norwood's mss became the

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standard for the landsat satellites

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a 7-bin sensor a refinement of her

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original six-band design flew on

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landsats 4 and 5 and went on to shape

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much of space-based land remote sensing

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a field that has only grown since then

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50 years later using technology that has

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evolved from norwood's original concepts

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landsat satellites are still showing us

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in 2021 landsat 9 launched into orbit

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the data now freely available to

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everyone will bring about new scientific