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earth cam is a nasa educational program

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in which middle school and college

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students don't just hear about a mission

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in space they participate in it by

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controlling a camera to photograph

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targets on earth the investigation is

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the brainchild of former astronaut sally

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ride and the payload developer brian awe

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is here this morning to talk about the

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project how did you get involved with

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with earthcam right

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i was working at an engineering firm and

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one of my supervisors approached me

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realizing that i had a background in

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camera and digital photography

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and asked if i would take over the

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project as a payload developer

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it was after a 24-year career in the air

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force and then they fortunately provided

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me with the school and the the

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engineering skills uh necessary to to

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take over as the the payload developer

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for earth cam so it's it's been a nice

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11 years it's been at for that long yes

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we have a lot of ways to take pictures

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of earth from the space station and

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from other things that are in orbit

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what is it about

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the earth cam that makes this so unique

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this is is a payload by students for

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students uh the the neatest thing about

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this is the students literally have

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direct control over the camera

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on board the iss

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it's not a

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the images are not a

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result of somebody else's research

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these are images that the students have

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actually targeted

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via web page tools that ucsd provides

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and

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they get these images down on the ground

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and then tear them apart and study them

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so that it's a really neat process you

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know by students for students ucsd is

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university of california and san diego

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um they're

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that's this is where that experiment

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this experiment comes from take us

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through it how do these students

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as you said do this study and tear it

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down just

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how how let's start with how those

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students are chosen to participate um

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it's they're really not chosen it's a

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teacher's election to utilize the the

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earthkam

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program as a as an aide to

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classroom studies we provide an

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opportunity by having the camera on

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board and available to the students for

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the week-long sessions

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we typically do this four times during

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the year and when the teacher elects to

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use earthkam to enhance the classroom

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activities

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some teachers actually have a

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competition to select the students

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others form the students into teams and

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have them

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work towards satisfying a research goal

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they give them a project that they have

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to go

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search out images that that they're able

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to capture during the mission

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and then use those images to

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back up

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a

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complete the project

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so it's and it's completely dependent

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upon the teacher

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we here at johnson

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and at

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ucsd california san diego provide the

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opportunity for the teachers to do this

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there must

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once the students are selected there is

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background work that they have to do

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to decide what they want to shoot if you

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will that's correct yeah

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based on the project that they're

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assigned

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the students can go to the web pages

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that we

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provide via the earth cam web page

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and determine where the iss is going to

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be flying overhead

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and

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search for targets that will satisfy

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their research requirement

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when they do that they then submit an

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image request

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to the university of california san

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diego in the the mock the mission

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operations center that they staff there

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we resolve the and that's staffed by

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college students correct undergrad

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students at the university

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they resolve any issues and with within

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literally all of the schools

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participating around the world

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and then they create what we call a

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camera control file

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that file then comes to us here at

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johnson space center by assets we have

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we uplink that to a

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laptop that is controlling the camera

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and it is a queue of times

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that tells the camera to take a picture

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as the space station passes over that

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point on the earth

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all of that

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work is accomplished at

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ucsd and in return the software that's

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operating on that laptop that quote

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makes earth camp will pull that image

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from

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the camera puts it in the folder we

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downlink that it gets post-processed a

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bit out at jpl we've got an individual

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out there who handles

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the imagery we contrast enhance it

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and then we post it to the website so

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the students can get access to their

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picture and then it's open to the

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general public also

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the students the middle school students

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are the ones who come up with the time

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that gets sent to the camera to say when

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to take the picture

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they have to do

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a lawful lot of different kinds of study

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to know what's the right time yes they

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do

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it starts off with a basic understanding

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of the globe latitude longitude

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and then they have to

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reduce the project that the teacher has

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assigned them into to

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latitude longitudes of potential targets

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then they go investigate where the space

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station is flying see if they can't

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image or target

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specific shots along the orbit track of

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the iss

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and then they they have to understand a

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little bit about trigonometry uh in

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geography

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in order to pull the whole package

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together so yeah it's it's a driver for

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showing real-time involvement into many

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different disciplines of science and

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math it's one thing to do a lot of study

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ahead of time to be able to predict the

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right time where the station's going to

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be

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after they send in that request how real

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time are the operations do things change

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on them oh yes oh yes we're in a real

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world

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we we have a camry that's operating on

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batteries

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occasionally toward the end of a battery

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or if it's it's been used a lot

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unfortunately we may miss a shot or two

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because the battery's gone dead and the

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crew hasn't had the chance to

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change the battery out yet

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later this week we also have a russian

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thruster firing test

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as a part of that we have to protect the

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window that we're looking out of the lab

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window is a very high quality scientific

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instrument if literally it's just a flat

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lens system so in order to protect it

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from getting

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obscured by the propellants we have to

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close the window shutter so again

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we have to black out no pictures during

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that time correct so yeah we play in the

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real world uh

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in making this payload work for the

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students

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the pictures you said there they come

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down they're processed and then they're

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made available on the internet for

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everyone correct yes

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since it's a a

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when pally and when sally thought this

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payload up uh she did a tremendous job

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in making sure that the resource wasn't

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just confined to a small group it's it's

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available to the general public

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and even several researchers actually

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use earthkam images as context photos

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for uh more in-depth knowledge in in

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their actual research

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how many students have been involved in

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this for more than 11 years over 11

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years uh we're over 190 000 students

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we we started keeping track of this

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as time went on and

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some of the earlier missions we had

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basically two or three hundred

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now we're averaging over three to four

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thousand per week long mission so it's

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grown quite a bit we still have the

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capability to handle more students

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uh the resources on board are not

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stretched uh so that you know we we can

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accommodate taking more pictures but you

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said you're doing it four times a year

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for a week at a time a week at a time

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yes that leaves a lot more weeks

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well we also have undergrad students out

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at the university that have to

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concentrate on their classes also they

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volunteer for scholarship money when

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they work at the the earth camp mission

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operations center so it's not a direct

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payment but they can offset their

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tuition costs somewhat by by working the

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mission for the middle school students

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we're not these students who have

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participated are from schools all over

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the world right yes uh we've had over 43

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countries involved with earth camp

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several of them have operated for

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multiple times

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i think the total

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by the time you add them up we're well

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over 240 some countries that have

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participated either once or multiple

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times yes how do you gauge the success

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is it it's not just that the picture's

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in focus is it

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um that's that's my job

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yeah i make sure that all the technical

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aspects are taken care of

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it's really nice i've gone to a few of

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the schools around here in the area

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after a mission actually during a

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mission i was able to sneak out for a

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few hours and when you see the students

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sitting down engaged in a mission it's

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like sitting here in mission control

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they are into

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their task at hand making sure that that

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image that they're about to request is a

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valid one

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and it's going to provide them a return

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so that they can benefit through their

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studies yeah it's it's neat to see the

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kids just

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engaged and when they do get a picture

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back they're very proud of it they can

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tell you what each pixel in that picture

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means and what it's representing so yes

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it's the the ownership

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of the images is probably the the

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incalculable benefit from it all the

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students can actually say i took that

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picture it wasn't a the result of

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somebody else's research it was their

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target their image that they targeted

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that's what sally wright had in mind yes

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yes she wanted to engage the students

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and she wanted to make it available for

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almost anybody all you have to do is

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have internet access

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we've got schools that are participating

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we call them education groups we've got

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schools we have scouting groups we have

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home school children that actually

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participate

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so the outreach

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for using earth cam

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is is growing and we see nothing but

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getting bigger and better as as time

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goes on and as you said anybody can look

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at the pictures what's the the internet

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address there's uh the internet address

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is

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it's an education website okay now

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that's on the screen there for everyone

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to see brian thanks very much enjoy it

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thank you very much brian awe is the

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payload developer for the earth cam