WEBVTT FILE

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If you want to make a spacecraft,
you've got to break a few eggs.

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No, that's not right.

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You've got to bake for a few days.

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That's it. So follow along for our recipe for homemade satellite.

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First up, collect your ingredients.

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We're making an ocean,
land, and atmosphere
monitoring satellite

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called PACE. So we'll gather
two polarimeters, which measure

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the polarization state of light

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as it travels through water
and atmospheric aerosols.

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And one Ocean Color Instrument,
which will measure light reflected

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from the ocean surface to
study tiny ocean creatures
called phytoplankton,

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as well as atmospheric
properties above the ocean.

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Wrap these individual components
in special spacecraft foil.

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These blankets for satellites
help keep the instruments
that need to be hot, hot,

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and those that need
to be cold, cold
while they're in space.

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We make them special
right here at Goddard.

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Place the instruments
in the Thermal Vacuum
Chamber or TVAC.

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This chamber mimics
some of the extremes
the satellite will experience.

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Space can be very cold,
but sunlight can heat
the spacecraft up.

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This test ensures the spacecraft
and its instruments will handle both.

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It also creates a vacuum,
like the vacuum of space,

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to make sure the satellite
can withstand those pressures.

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We'll bake the satellite
components at a variety

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of temperatures and
pressures for several days.

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When your timer goes off,
remove PACE from TVAC.

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It's time for the last step of
building a spacecraft: Assembly!

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We'll install PACE's instruments
to get ready for launch in 2024

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and a new view of our home
planet's ocean and atmosphere.