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[Music]

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hey alex hey daryl good to see you good

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to see you too hey thanks for having me

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out so this is it this is it this is the

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pli the nasa portable lightning

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instrumentation i see it right here

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you're gonna take it up there all the

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way to where the top of the rocket is

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yeah right right around where the

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payload fairing is level five all right

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that's where we're going well you need a

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hand yeah come help us

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[Music]

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now that we're inside the vif and we're

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about 13 stories up

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tell me a little bit about this box

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you've got some looks like some sensors

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here that's right so we got the current

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probe which is over near the rocket and

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we have three more sensors over here

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this one is an electric field sensor

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this one up here is a magnetic field

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sensor and this little one over here

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that's a gps antenna that's how we we

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get it make sure our data stays uh

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synchronized in time so that we can

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correlate that data to all the other

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lightning detection networks in the area

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so what happens if there's a lightning

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strike somewhere nearby what does this

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do

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so if it's close enough to cause any uh

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interference in this area these field

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sensors will pick it up first

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and they'll cause the entire system to

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take a snapshot of that data and record

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it

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and how is that helpful we'll know what

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the peak of it was we'll know how long

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the transient lasted we'll be able to

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calculate how much energy traveled

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through there we'll have a lot more

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information to work on

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small box big rocket but it's got a big

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role in the whole scheme of things it's

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[Music]

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so we can see those lightning towers out

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there and ula tells me that that

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protects the rocket when the lightning

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strikes so why do we need the pli yeah

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so this system over here we call that

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the lightning protection system that's

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designed to protect it from a direct

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lightning strike that means the the

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lightning is attaching directly to the

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rocket and we're concerned about you

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know a lightning strike out there in the

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ocean maybe just a mile away and the

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energy in a lightning strike is so

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intense it creates these very powerful

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magnetic and electric fields and those

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are the things we're concerned about

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because that magnetic field can come

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through and couple into the umbilical

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cable it's a huge loop it makes a big

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old loop and that's the current we're

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looking for with the pli has the pli

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ever prevented a long launch delay for a

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previous mission march 2020 where the

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data from the pli gave the spacecraft

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team the confidence to go ahead and

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launch so there was a lightning strike

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around the mars perseverance rocket

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that's right and you saw it and we

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gathered that data yep and it launched

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on time it did

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and it's up there now