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I believe that this nation should commit

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itself to achieving the goal before this

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decade is out of landing a man on the

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moon and returning him safely to the

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earth from the Sea of Tranquility

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President Kennedy's hope was realized

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the lunar landing was the climax of the

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Apollo years it was an era of excitement

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of adventure that sent the American

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spirit soaring for the new century back

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to the moon back to the future and this

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time back to stay and then a journey

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into tomorrow a journey to another

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planet a manned mission to Mars the

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announcement came on the 20th

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anniversary of Man's first visit to the

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moon President Bush's pledge to take

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another giant leap for mankind may very

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well rekindle the spirit that stirred

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the imagination and sent a generation

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gazing skyward to the greatest adventure

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of our time space exploration developing

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new technology including a new

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generation of planetary rover is

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critical to the president's space

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initiative in the years ahead these

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cost-effective vehicles with their

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sophisticated technology will perform

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the advanced work of sight exploration

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and engineering as america prepares to

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build a lunar outpost and journeys on to

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Mars nASA has begun an important new

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technology initiative which will develop

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the technologies needed for the

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exploration missions one of the

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technology program elements is the

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at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in

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Pasadena California this new breed of

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space hardware has moved beyond the

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drawing boards unlike the first

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generation of lunar Rovers the new breed

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of unmanned Rovers with their stereo

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eyes and powerful onboard computers will

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drive themselves like no vehicle has in

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the past the current rover technology

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owes much to another generation of

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hardware and to another generation of

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engineers it started in the 1960s with

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the development of the manned apollo

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lunar rover vehicle a prototype unmanned

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lunar rover that never did make it to

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the moon and in the years since the job

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of developing a more sophisticated Rover

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design has been passed on to another

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generation of engineers these two

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engineers were in grade school during

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the inspiring days of the Apollo program

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but there is a surprising continuity in

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the evolution of the new Rover Brian

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Wilcox was only 12 years old the day

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that the early surveyor lunar rover

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vehicle prototype rolled out for testing

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Brian's father was the director of

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research and engineering at General

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Motors Defence Research Laboratory where

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that vehicle was built under contract to

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JPL today brian is the navigation system

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manager for the JPL Rover project his

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job to take the newest technology and

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pick up where past dreamers and

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engineers left off and build a vehicle

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that can drive itself on another planet

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on this vehicle we have computers that

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are able to perform several millions of

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operations per second compared to

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perhaps a few hundred operations per

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second

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the vehicles designed in the 60s and so

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we're able to autonomously move six to

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ten miles a day and to do that without

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human intervention although planetary

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surface exploration stalled in the years

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following Apollo lunar rover and Viking

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Mars Lander successes research and

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development at JPL has continued one

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example is military robotic vehicle

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technology programs with synergistic

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autonomous navigation technology the new

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space initiative has happened and JPL is

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ready with early versions of the next

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generation of Rovers today marks the

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debut of Robbie the new Rover navigation

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testbed vehicle today's test is the

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culmination of many years of work for

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just one of JPL's dedicated teams but it

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is also the continuation of the dream of

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early NASA visionaries the test today is

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to demonstrate semi autonomous

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navigation what we will do is several

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cycles of semi autonomous navigation

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where the vehicle will take images it

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will correlate those images to find the

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distance to each point in the in the

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scene it will match that information

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with a global terrain database and then

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it will plan a path based on that best

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estimated knowledge of the terrain

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surface the semi autonomous navigation

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system will now be put to the test Andy

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Michigan what we've gotten to today is

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basically the result of integrating many

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different subsystems that involve many

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different elements the hardware the

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software sensing by the vehicle the

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perception and the determination what

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what is the terrain in front of the

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vehicle the conversion of that to an

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appropriate map

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and integrating that with a path planner

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which takes that data and and plans a

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safe path all of those pieces had to

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come together and work together to allow

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us to get to today the cameras should

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scan and do local terrain maps of this

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area here and it should find the a

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traversable path around Roger Bedard the

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unmanned rover navigation work that

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you're seeing in terms of the test work

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going on down here is but one part of

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the NASA rover program there's other

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technology work going on at JPL in the

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power area and the mobility area in the

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mission operations area there's also

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work at other centers at Ames Research

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Center at Marshall Space Flight Center

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and work at universities mainly at

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carnegie mellon university the rover

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must drive itself around a rock mound to

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a destination behind the mound which is

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not visible from its starting point the

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trail is apparent to the human eye and

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mind but will Robbie with its machine

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intelligence find the way there will be

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no communication with the rover it will

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have to navigate on its own for the team

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and Robbie the test site is as remote as

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Mars 35 million miles away a likely

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place for it to be used would be on Mars

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either doing a sample return and

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exploration or survey of sites for

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eventual human outpost they could do

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that on the moon as well with all

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systems go Robbie begins to make his way

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by far it's the most sophisticated of

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all rover designs its distinction goes

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beyond the stereo cameras that double

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for eyes and the flexible backbone of

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its three parts chassis and the high

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gear ratios that provide the muscle to

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climb over boulders what makes this

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Rover unique is its computer software

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the semi autonomous navigation or San

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technology simply put Sam is the onboard

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intelligence in a PC sized computer that

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provides the brains to navigate and

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drive the vehicle to understand how

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Robbie finds his way around a rock mount

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for example let's look inside first the

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electronic eyes view the mound and the

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computer understands it to be an

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obstacle this is the combined panoramic

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data from those three scans you see the

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vehicle has its six wheels turned into a

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hard left turn and then when we go to

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combine that with the global data and

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the original data from the first path

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this is what results considering the

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programmed restrictions the computerized

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semi autonomous navigation system like a

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human navigator begins to make decisions

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to follow a path of least resistance the

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process occurs over and over as Robbie

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cautiously moves forward as Robbie is

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moving the onboard computers continually

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monitor the movement and trigger reflex

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actions if the path execution is not as

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predicted as Robbie progresses towards

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its final destination the look of

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success sweeps across the faces of those

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who have worked so long and so hard for

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this moment the semi autonomous

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navigation experiment may have been only

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a first step a first step in developing

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a kind of machine intelligence that

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someday will affect not only how we

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explore the universe but how we live out

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our lives on earth

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the NASA Exploration Technologies

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program will lead the way as America