The launch pad for SERVIR, a joint development initiative of the United States Agency for International Development and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, lies in the jungle.
Dan Irwin used an old GPS to do mapping work for Conservation International in Guatemala, until he ran into a NASA archaeologist who showed him the insights that images from space could offer.
For several years, he would pack a slide projector on a mule and go from village to village with this satellite imagery of deforestation, until he took a job at the Marshall Space Flight Center 17 years ago.