1
00:00:01,940 --> 00:00:04,180
Landsat 9: Continuing the Legacy

2
00:00:04,180 --> 00:00:11,980


3
00:00:11,980 --> 00:00:13,700
Terry Arvidson: The Blue Marble.

4
00:00:13,700 --> 00:00:14,740


5
00:00:14,740 --> 00:00:19,140
That was our first view of ourselves! 

6
00:00:19,140 --> 00:00:23,790
We really are the blue planet. We’re hanging out here in the middle of nowhere….

7
00:00:23,790 --> 00:00:28,590
Episode One: Getting Off the Ground

8
00:00:28,590 --> 00:00:35,770
In fact the Apollo imagery was part of the justification for putting together a satellite 

9
00:00:35,770 --> 00:00:38,310
that would look at the Earth.

10
00:00:38,310 --> 00:00:41,300
Marc Evan Jackson: That satellite was the first Landsat.

11
00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:43,680
The Landsat mission now holds the title

12
00:00:43,680 --> 00:00:48,130
for the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land in existence.

13
00:00:48,130 --> 00:00:50,120


14
00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:55,890
At least one Landsat satellite has been orbiting the Earth since 1972. 

15
00:00:55,890 --> 00:00:59,600
That’s nearly 50 years of steadfast observation.

16
00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,700
The program was born in the midst of several historical flashpoints

17
00:01:02,700 --> 00:01:05,770
during a time when the world was changing quickly.  

18
00:01:05,770 --> 00:01:07,100


19
00:01:07,100 --> 00:01:08,970
Terry Arvidson: Well it really was a perfect storm. 

20
00:01:08,970 --> 00:01:14,610
We had a lot of technology coming out of WWII with air-flown sensors.

21
00:01:14,610 --> 00:01:19,740
We also had an awareness of the environment between Rachel Carson.

22
00:01:19,740 --> 00:01:23,520
Even Stewart Udall wrote a book called the Quiet Crisis.

23
00:01:23,520 --> 00:01:29,260
Those two things together, the space race… all of those came together.

24
00:01:29,260 --> 00:01:32,830
Marc Evan Jackson: But the Landsat story doesn’t actually start with NASA. 

25
00:01:32,830 --> 00:01:35,950
It starts with the United States Geological Survey. 

26
00:01:35,950 --> 00:01:39,690
Terry Arvidson: There were a couple of really interesting players. 

27
00:01:39,690 --> 00:01:47,180
The primary one is William T. Pecora and he was the director of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

28
00:01:47,180 --> 00:01:49,420
His boss was Stewart Udall.

29
00:01:49,420 --> 00:01:53,090
He tried floating it around and it didn’t quite make it.

30
00:01:53,090 --> 00:01:59,860
Department of Defense, the CIA, NASA – which was just beginning at that point -

31
00:01:59,860 --> 00:02:02,920
They all said, nah, you know, this isn’t the right time.

32
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:08,800
So in 1966, Pecora and Udall announced that, "Ok fine."

33
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:10,760
“Department of Interior will launch.”

34
00:02:10,760 --> 00:02:20,040
And so that caused a big kerfuffle and the bottom-line was that NASA was forced to step up.

35
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:21,820
Marc Evan Jackson: But let’s pause for a second. 

36
00:02:21,820 --> 00:02:24,920
Obviously, there was a big push to make an Earth-observing satellite.

37
00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:27,480
But what exactly did it need to do?

38
00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,200
Landsat’s entire job is to collect light. 

39
00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:33,700
Visible light like this, and non visible light like this. 

40
00:02:33,700 --> 00:02:35,900
After Landsat captures the light it sees,

41
00:02:35,900 --> 00:02:37,830
it can make two kinds of pictures: 

42
00:02:37,830 --> 00:02:40,800
True color images and false color images. 

43
00:02:40,800 --> 00:02:44,270
Did you know your eyes can only detect red, green and blue?

44
00:02:44,270 --> 00:02:45,930
It sounds crazy, but it’s true.

45
00:02:45,930 --> 00:02:50,040
In fact, if you took a magnifying glass to the screen you’re probably looking at right now,

46
00:02:50,040 --> 00:02:52,730
you’d see a jumble of red, green, and blue dots. 

47
00:02:52,730 --> 00:02:54,930
Mix those colors together with different intensities

48
00:02:54,930 --> 00:02:58,010
and your brain interprets all the colors of the rainbow.

49
00:02:58,010 --> 00:02:59,390
True color images are made

50
00:02:59,390 --> 00:03:01,880
by combining red, blue and green light.

51
00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:03,560
But what’s even more amazing? 

52
00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:07,250
Landsat also captures infrared light beyond what we can see.

53
00:03:07,250 --> 00:03:11,860
And that light can reveal some incredible things when you look at a false color image.

54
00:03:11,860 --> 00:03:13,880
Like the difference between types of plants, 

55
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:15,300
how healthy those plants are,

56
00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:17,770
healthy coral reefs and even dead coral reefs,

57
00:03:17,770 --> 00:03:19,570
fire-tracking, ocean pollution… 

58
00:03:19,570 --> 00:03:21,930
The possibilities are nearly endless.

59
00:03:21,930 --> 00:03:27,230
In fact, I bet you’ve probably seen Landsat images without even knowing it.

60
00:03:27,230 --> 00:03:30,790
From Google Earth and works of art to television and movies.

61
00:03:30,790 --> 00:03:32,350
And I should know.

62
00:03:32,350 --> 00:03:35,570
Before my untimely smushing by an 85-foot tall Great Ape

63
00:03:35,570 --> 00:03:36,640
deep into the film,

64
00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:40,980
I, your narrator, played Landsat Steve in Kong: Skull Island.

65
00:03:40,980 --> 00:03:42,310
But I digress.

66
00:03:42,310 --> 00:03:43,980
Now back to our story!

67
00:03:43,980 --> 00:03:47,550
NASA and USGS get to work largely under the direction of 

68
00:03:47,550 --> 00:03:52,070
lead engineer Virgina Norwood who was often called the “Mother of Landsat.”

69
00:03:52,070 --> 00:03:53,030


70
00:03:53,030 --> 00:03:56,050
Norwood and her team had to design an experimental instrument,

71
00:03:56,050 --> 00:04:00,140
the Multispectral Scanner, that had never been flown in space before.

72
00:04:00,140 --> 00:04:03,260
Virginia Norwood: We took, and NASA took a real gamble,

73
00:04:03,260 --> 00:04:05,990
to propose a scanner for this, 

74
00:04:05,990 --> 00:04:08,050
that with quite a bit of skepticism.

75
00:04:08,050 --> 00:04:11,620
Marc Evan Jackson: To assuage the skeptics and test the scanner’s capabilities

76
00:04:11,620 --> 00:04:15,160
the team loaded up the test model on a truck and headed to Yosemite.

77
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:19,150
Virginia Norwood: And this was because nobody believes that scanner will work.

78
00:04:19,150 --> 00:04:22,770
I think you better give us some assurance.

79
00:04:22,770 --> 00:04:26,000


80
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:30,880
Marc Evan Jackson: The true test came when Landsat 1 launched, on July 23, 1972. 

81
00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:35,110
Sadly, William T. Pecora, one of the project’s original champions, 

82
00:04:35,110 --> 00:04:39,040
died just three days before Landsat took its place in orbit. 

83
00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:42,250
But with this launch, the United States and soon the world, 

84
00:04:42,250 --> 00:04:45,400
would step into a new paradigm of Earth observation.

85
00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,920
Never-before seen snapshots of land resources and the environment 

86
00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:53,570
would be key for critical decision making decades into the future.

87
00:04:53,570 --> 00:04:55,160


88
00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:56,610
Coming next…

89
00:04:56,610 --> 00:04:59,680
GE Engineer: It's impossible to predict really

90
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:02,210
the exact lifetime of one of these birds.

91
00:05:02,210 --> 00:05:06,710
But we hope that the spacecraft can go on perhaps for another year,

92
00:05:06,710 --> 00:05:08,210
perhaps another two years,

93
00:05:08,210 --> 00:05:10,990
bringing down the data, as it has been doing.

94
00:05:10,990 --> 00:05:12,380


95
00:05:12,380 --> 00:05:22,667
Episode Two: Designing for the Future

96
00:05:22,668 --> 00:05:16,333
 

97
00:05:16,334 --> 00:05:19,999
Landsat is a joint program of NASA and USGS