1
00:00:00,010 --> 00:00:03,020
[ Music ]

2
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:14,780
My name is Chopo Ma.  My primary job these days seems to be in charge of NASA's geodetic VLBI program.

3
00:00:14,800 --> 00:00:26,480
When NASA started in this area of space geodesy using VLBI, there were different questions that were really interesting to answer.

4
00:00:26,500 --> 00:00:34,130
For example, whether plates like the North American plate and Europe, the continents were actually moving.

5
00:00:34,150 --> 00:00:47,190
The questions now are fundamental metrics, so that from the space geodesy measurements we can develop a very precise terrestrial reference frame.

6
00:00:47,210 --> 00:00:59,270
The ability to know on the Earth, from one place to another and from one time to another, how things are related: up, down, east, west, north, south.

7
00:00:59,290 --> 00:01:07,930
And this is very important for measurements which are small in nature but take some time to measure properly,

8
00:01:07,950 --> 00:01:15,320
like what happens with sea level rise, and whether it's uniform over the whole globe or not.

9
00:01:15,340 --> 00:01:23,480
VLBI and the other techniques are working to make improvements to make these types of fundamental measurements,

10
00:01:23,500 --> 00:01:30,680
to allow other science to be done more accurately and to make the interpretation more secure.

11
00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:33,980
[ Fade music ]

12
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:45,185
[ Satellite beeping ]