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The Planetary Science
Winter School is a program for

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early career scientists and
postdocs like myself to come

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together for the first time and
see how a mission goes from just

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a science concept to something
that could

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actually fly in space one day.

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The Winter School is a great
hands-on experience, because it

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gives us the ability to actually
get involved with the design of

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a real mission that
might actually fly some day.

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We actually are trying to
develop an instrument concept

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for a client, and we
figure out, "Is it feasible?

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How much does it cost?

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How much does it weigh?"

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And so we have things like
volume, mass, and power to deal

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with for this entire week.

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My role in the Planetary Science
Winter School was working with

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the thermal systems leads.

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We looked at our instrument
and we have to determine how to

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handle things related to
temperature stability,

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gradients, but also the
environment that you're in.

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My role was flight
software and electrical.

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I got to team up with two
mentors in my case so I think

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I'm double lucky.

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I had no idea, since I'm a
scientist I've never really done

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anything on the electrical back
end of something scientific, so

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this is a really great
opportunity for me to see

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everything that
goes on in design.

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My role in the Winter School was
basically figuring out, "What is

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the design of the
detector that we want?"

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We learned on the first day of
the study that there was going

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to be a second type of detector,
and so what I was fascinated by

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was just watching people
roll with that new information.

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So there's a lot of organized
chaos that comes together, where

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people sort of don't really know
what they're doing at first.

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I think that's something you see
in science in general, as you

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start to do more work you
realize

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how much goes into things.

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We just sort of run around
talking to each other, saying,

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"I have a problem with this.

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How do we solve this?"

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And together we figure it out.

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[music]

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The engineering part of
a mission really in some ways is

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the controlling part of what
type of science you get to do,

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and it's incredibly important
for scientists

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to understand that.

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Now I've seen what it takes to
develop these instruments from

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the engineering side, and so in
the future when I come back on

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the customer side where I have
an instrument that I want to

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have built by the IDL lab, I'll
understand what information the

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engineering team needs in
order to do that effectively.

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So I think one of the next steps
in my career, in the next five

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or ten years, is to actually
become an instrument scientist.

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The only way to really start
that process of learning how to

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do those things is something
like this, an opportunity like

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the Planetary
Science Winter School.

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When you're thinking about
scientific topics, it's really

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thinking in terms of angels on
pinheads, where you have this

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concept that's very high-level
and that isn't necessarily

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well-formulated in terms
of a plan to get data.

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And I think the Planetary
Science Winter School helps you

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take the science that's in your
mind and try to apply it to the

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real world, to
something that's more tangible.

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[music]

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[satellite beeping]