1 00:00:03,712 --> 00:00:05,714 Lift off! We have a lift off! 2 00:00:05,714 --> 00:00:07,465 Music begins. Announcer slightly muted: Thirty-two minutes past the hour. 3 00:00:07,465 --> 00:00:09,926 Lift off of Apollo 11. 4 00:00:09,926 --> 00:00:14,305 Narrator: In the 1960s, the United States decided to venture forth to the moon's surface. 5 00:00:15,056 --> 00:00:18,018 This new vantage point of space allowed us to look back at Earth's surface 6 00:00:18,018 --> 00:00:19,686 in wonder. 7 00:00:20,311 --> 00:00:23,273 Photographs taken by astronauts in the Apollo and Gemini 8 00:00:23,273 --> 00:00:24,983 fascinated the world. 9 00:00:24,983 --> 00:00:27,944 And inspired a few to ask the question: 10 00:00:27,944 --> 00:00:30,905 Could space be the solution for regular Earth observations? 11 00:00:32,282 --> 00:00:35,243 One piece of technology, dating to 1968, 12 00:00:35,243 --> 00:00:38,204 has since defined Earth remote sensing from space. 13 00:00:40,290 --> 00:00:43,543 It was initially doubted, but the little scanner that could defied 14 00:00:43,543 --> 00:00:47,297 all cynics, to give us what we know today as the Landsat Program. 15 00:00:48,882 --> 00:00:52,218 This instrument, called the Multispectral scanner, or MSS, 16 00:00:52,927 --> 00:00:55,346 was designed and championed by Virginia T. Norwood. 17 00:00:55,764 --> 00:00:58,725 Earning her the moniker, the Mother of Landsat. 18 00:00:59,017 --> 00:01:03,313 Sam Goward: The Landsat system is an amazing one, that makes you wonder if the MSS System 19 00:01:03,313 --> 00:01:07,108 hadn't been onboard and operating, what would've happend to Landsat? 20 00:01:08,651 --> 00:01:10,653 Narrator: Virginia Norwood graduated from MIT 21 00:01:10,653 --> 00:01:12,655 with a degree in mathematical physics. 22 00:01:13,281 --> 00:01:17,035 Soon after, she developed a radar reflector that discovered previously 23 00:01:17,035 --> 00:01:18,912 untrackable winds. 24 00:01:19,079 --> 00:01:21,539 Her continuous successes got her a position 25 00:01:21,539 --> 00:01:23,708 at Hughes Aircraft Company. 26 00:01:23,875 --> 00:01:26,836 She was amongst the first women to join their technical staff. 27 00:01:27,087 --> 00:01:30,757 Where she pioneered the first spaced-based Multispectral Scanner. 28 00:01:31,925 --> 00:01:32,842 Naomi Norwood: She said... 29 00:01:32,842 --> 00:01:38,640 ..." I was kind of known as the person who could solve impossible problems." 30 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:43,228 So, people would bring things to her, even pieces of other projects. 31 00:01:45,271 --> 00:01:48,358 Narrator: Norwood was working at Hughes when NASA initiated 32 00:01:48,358 --> 00:01:52,028 the Earth Resources Technology Satellite mission in 1967. 33 00:01:53,196 --> 00:01:57,283 As scientists at the University of Michigan and Purdue demonstrated, 34 00:01:57,283 --> 00:02:00,245 the future of land imaging was multi-spectral. 35 00:02:01,329 --> 00:02:03,623 They used this developing technology to assess 36 00:02:03,623 --> 00:02:05,959 the planet's surface on a more local scale. 37 00:02:09,546 --> 00:02:14,926 Multispectral devices like the MSS measure energy from the electromagnetic spectrum, 38 00:02:14,926 --> 00:02:17,554 including both visible and infrared light. 39 00:02:19,305 --> 00:02:22,517 The sensor acts passivley, recording certain wavelengths of light 40 00:02:22,517 --> 00:02:24,352 reflected off the Earth's surface. 41 00:02:24,644 --> 00:02:28,022 These measurements are recorded digitally and transmitted to ground stations 42 00:02:28,022 --> 00:02:30,984 to be analyzed pixel by pixel - something that had never been done before. 43 00:02:33,653 --> 00:02:37,282 However, NASA and USGS both had reservations. 44 00:02:37,574 --> 00:02:42,537 The MSS was new technology, and they favored the Return Beam Vidicon (the RBV), 45 00:02:43,079 --> 00:02:46,457 designed by RCA to map the moon for the Apollo Missions. 46 00:02:47,584 --> 00:02:51,921 The RBV used television tube technology to create a system of cameras 47 00:02:51,921 --> 00:02:54,883 each filtered to a specific set of wavelengths or bands. 48 00:02:55,884 --> 00:03:00,054 They were limited to the blue-green, orange-red and near infrared bands. 49 00:03:02,557 --> 00:03:06,269 The system was analog, limited, and soon to be dated. 50 00:03:06,686 --> 00:03:09,647 So, how to convince them to try multispectral technology? 51 00:03:10,398 --> 00:03:13,109 Virginia Norwood: ...people felt much more comfortable with that 52 00:03:13,109 --> 00:03:16,070 even if they didn't understand the ramifications. 53 00:03:18,072 --> 00:03:21,034 And so we felt that there was a real bias because of that. 54 00:03:22,327 --> 00:03:25,705 Narrator: With the help of other innovators like Jack Lansing and Webb Howe, 55 00:03:25,705 --> 00:03:30,001 the prototype designed by Virginia Norwood was created for only a hundred thousand dollars 56 00:03:30,001 --> 00:03:32,295 - less than a million dollars today. 57 00:03:33,004 --> 00:03:36,382 Her original designs included a scanner that looked at 6 bands 58 00:03:36,382 --> 00:03:38,218 of the electromagnetic spectrum. 59 00:03:38,384 --> 00:03:43,139 However, because the more trusted RBV system was heavier and larger 60 00:03:43,139 --> 00:03:46,851 taking up more of the satellite, she had to cut back to 4 bands. 61 00:03:49,604 --> 00:03:53,107 Naomi Norwood: And really, only a tiny corner of the spacecraft was 62 00:03:53,107 --> 00:03:56,486 was allotted to the tiny little multispectral scanner. 63 00:03:56,486 --> 00:04:00,740 And no one knew precisely how it was going to perform, 64 00:04:00,740 --> 00:04:02,367 whether it would even work, 65 00:04:02,367 --> 00:04:06,412 whether the mirror would work, whether the digitized data would work. 66 00:04:06,788 --> 00:04:11,125 From the get go, her superiors were saying 67 00:04:11,125 --> 00:04:15,255 oh, you know handwringing that "This was gonna be a problem!" 68 00:04:15,255 --> 00:04:18,216 There was so much about it that was novel. 69 00:04:18,216 --> 00:04:20,718 And there was so much skepticism. 70 00:04:21,636 --> 00:04:25,431 Narrator: To allay NASA and USGS jitters about the much-doubted scanner, 71 00:04:25,431 --> 00:04:30,353 the prototype was stuck onto the back of a truck and taken on a California roadtrip. 72 00:04:30,979 --> 00:04:34,941 Virginia Norwood: This was because Joe Arlauskas said, 73 00:04:35,984 --> 00:04:38,069 "Nobody believes that scanner will work. 74 00:04:38,069 --> 00:04:41,447 I think you'd better - you'd better give us some assurance." 75 00:04:42,115 --> 00:04:45,702 And, so, Jack Lansing and a couple people took it out on a truck. 76 00:04:46,369 --> 00:04:47,245 And, uh... 77 00:04:47,578 --> 00:04:51,374 and he was an outdoors type anyway. So he just thought it was great to get 78 00:04:51,374 --> 00:04:54,335 Tahoe and Yosemite and all those places. 79 00:04:56,504 --> 00:04:58,548 Narrator: The images were spectacular. 80 00:04:59,007 --> 00:05:02,343 The Half-Dome image still hangs on Norwood's wall today. 81 00:05:03,678 --> 00:05:11,144 On July 23rd, 1972, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite launched into orbit with Norwood's sensor on board. 82 00:05:12,895 --> 00:05:14,731 Just 14 days after launch, 83 00:05:14,731 --> 00:05:21,654 a power surge caused by RBV electronics physically rocked the spacecraft and the RBV was immediately shut off. 84 00:05:22,697 --> 00:05:28,536 The first clouds free image from the MSS was the Ouachita Mountains in Southeastern Oklahoma. 85 00:05:29,912 --> 00:05:32,874 Chuck Robinove: I looked at those images and tears came to my eyes. 86 00:05:33,333 --> 00:05:39,130 And I said it's everything we hoped for and more than we expected. 87 00:05:39,422 --> 00:05:44,761 It was one of, it was, I can say the highlight of my career 88 00:05:44,761 --> 00:05:47,930 and one of the major highlights of my life was to see that 89 00:05:47,930 --> 00:05:52,018 and to see that it worked and to think about what we could do with it. 90 00:05:52,018 --> 00:05:54,979 Sam Goward: Virginia Norwood - incredibly innovative, 91 00:05:54,979 --> 00:05:57,482 pulled off something that nobody thought would occur. 92 00:05:57,482 --> 00:06:01,402 Narrator: Virginia Norwood's MSS became the standard for the Landsat Satellites. 93 00:06:01,444 --> 00:06:05,823 A 7-band sensor, a refinement of her original 6-band design, 94 00:06:06,199 --> 00:06:08,326 flew on Landsats 4 and 5. 95 00:06:08,326 --> 00:06:11,954 And went on to shape much of space-based land remote sensing, 96 00:06:11,954 --> 00:06:14,207 a field that has only grown since then. 97 00:06:15,291 --> 00:06:19,545 Fifty years later, using technology that has evolved from Norwood's original concepts, 98 00:06:20,004 --> 00:06:23,549 Landsat satellites are still showing us more about the planet we love. 99 00:06:26,844 --> 00:06:29,806 In 2021, Landsat 9 launched into orbit. 100 00:06:30,348 --> 00:06:32,850 The data, now freely available to everyone, 101 00:06:32,850 --> 00:06:38,398 will bring about new scientific advances helping us to understand our changing planet. 102 00:06:41,401 --> 00:06:42,235 NASA Meatball 103 00:06:42,235 --> 00:06:42,985 USGS Logo USGS: Science for a Changing World 104 00:06:42,985 --> 00:06:43,903 Landsat is a joint program of NASA and USGS: 105 00:06:43,903 --> 00:06:44,779 www.nasa.gov/landsat 106 00:06:44,779 --> 00:06:45,655 www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/nli/landsat