1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,090 Music 2 00:00:04,110 --> 00:00:08,150 Music Beth: My name is Beth 3 00:00:08,170 --> 00:00:12,210 Weinstein, and I am an I&T, 4 00:00:12,230 --> 00:00:16,250 integration and test engineer. Lisa: My name is Lisa Bartusek and I 5 00:00:16,270 --> 00:00:20,280 am the GPM Deputy Mission Systems Engineer. Carlton: My name is 6 00:00:20,300 --> 00:00:24,330 Carlton Peters, I'm an associate branch head here at the Goddard Space Flight Center 7 00:00:24,350 --> 00:00:28,350 in the thermal engineering branch. I also serve as the GPM 8 00:00:28,370 --> 00:00:32,390 thermal project development lead. We basically 9 00:00:32,410 --> 00:00:36,470 are a part of the larger GPM I&T team, which consists of 10 00:00:36,490 --> 00:00:40,520 electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical 11 00:00:40,540 --> 00:00:44,650 technicians, mechanical technicians, thermal technicians. 12 00:00:44,670 --> 00:00:48,700 Lisa: Satellites are very complex systems, so the part of it 13 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:52,710 about breaking them down into all the little pieces tends to be fairly 14 00:00:52,730 --> 00:00:56,750 easy, and I find the hard part to be putting all the pieces back together. 15 00:00:56,770 --> 00:01:00,850 Carlton: It takes the entire team and everybody to be focused 16 00:01:00,870 --> 00:01:04,940 on one mission. A lot of times people feel like they 17 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:08,940 can take the entire burden on themselves, but it's good to communicate 18 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:12,960 amongst everyone and make sure everybody's on the same page, moving forward, and we, 19 00:01:12,980 --> 00:01:17,010 I think, are getting there on GPM. Lisa: We really want to make sure it 20 00:01:17,030 --> 00:01:21,040 works, we don't want to waste the taxpayer dollars, and so we develop tests 21 00:01:21,060 --> 00:01:25,100 that will put it through its paces. Carlton: We can't go get the spacecraft, bring it 22 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:29,130 back, fix it, and send it back out there. It just isn't that simple. 23 00:01:29,150 --> 00:01:33,170 And you'd rather solve a small issue now rather than 24 00:01:33,190 --> 00:01:37,280 have it propagate and become a bigger issue for you later. 25 00:01:37,300 --> 00:01:41,350 Beth: I'm also a test director, so we split our work 26 00:01:41,370 --> 00:01:45,390 up into shifts and then during the shift, I'm the one in charge of 27 00:01:45,410 --> 00:01:49,460 all the work that's going on the spacecraft that day. And if someone needs 28 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:53,520 something, if they're missing some kind of resource, whether that's personnel or physical 29 00:01:53,540 --> 00:01:57,620 resource, then it would be my job to make sure that they get what they need to do their job. 30 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,640 Actually my background is in computer science, 31 00:02:01,660 --> 00:02:05,700 it was computer science focused, but definitely a focus on an understanding of Earth science 32 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,740 and how we viewed the Earth from afar and what we could do with that data. 33 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:13,780 Carlton: And I took a course in thermodynamics, and I mean I fell in love with 34 00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:17,870 it right away. I knew right away that was the way I was going to go in 35 00:02:17,890 --> 00:02:21,930 engineering. I was going to go towards thermal engineering. 36 00:02:21,950 --> 00:02:25,980 Lisa: I was always very interested in math, and I didn't think it was quite practical 37 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:30,030 to become a mathematician, I'm more practically-minded. So I decided to 38 00:02:30,050 --> 00:02:34,060 go into engineering, and the thing that really attracts me about it is that 39 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,210 I like to do puzzles and I like logic so 40 00:02:38,230 --> 00:02:42,260 I think being in engineering I'm able to indulge myself in those 41 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:46,290 passions everyday. Carlton: It's being flexible is probably one of the 42 00:02:46,310 --> 00:02:50,330 hardest and best things to be during I&T 43 00:02:50,350 --> 00:02:54,410 because you just prepare for some of the things that happen. 44 00:02:54,430 --> 00:02:58,540 Beth: The reason why it's important and why we test and do all this is not only to launch it and 45 00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:02,580 make sure that our time was used well, that we don't have something that fails once it gets into 46 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,660 up there, but that people are actually waiting for this data. 47 00:03:06,680 --> 00:03:10,710 Music, rain falling 48 00:03:10,730 --> 00:03:14,800 Music 49 00:03:14,820 --> 00:03:18,412