Earth  ID: 12874

NASA Space Laser Heads on a Road Trip

Released on February 28, 2018
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A selection of shots of the ICESat-2 ATLAS instrument leaving Goddard Space Flight Center for Orbital ATK.

Music: "We Learn," Andrew Michael Britton, Atmosphere Music Ltd.

Complete transcript available.

The Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 is slated to launch in September to measure the height of Earth’s surface, particularly the changing polar ice. To do that, it uses a laser instrument called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS, that precisely times how long it takes light particles to bounce off Earth and return to the satellite.

ATLAS was designed, built and tested at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft bus, with its solar panels, navigation components and more, was built at Orbital ATK’s facility in Gilbert, Arizona. To deliver the instrument safely to the spacecraft for assembly and testing, the ATLAS team developed special procedures for packing, transporting and monitoring the sensitive hardware.

 

Source Material

ICESat-2 Testing and Integration B-roll

Credits

Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Producer
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Videographer
Ryan Fitzgibbons (USRA): Lead Editor
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12874

Mission:
Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2)

This item is part of this series:
Narrated Movies

Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Atlas
NASA Science >> Earth