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[Music]

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[Applause]

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hello good afternoon everyone my name is

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Leslie from NASA Ames Research Center

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I'm a chemical engineer over there

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working as a Mission Support Engineer

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today I wanted to talk about splice our

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sample processor to enable the search

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for life on icy worlds specifically what

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we're gonna be talking about is a

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microfluidic front-end to interface with

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capillary electrophoresis or mass spec

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or a number of different analytical

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instruments it's specific to processing

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samples and from ocean worlds and

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solidus in Europa we had to we have

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multiple configurations first place some

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for a plume sampling some Firth Lander

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sampling in which case each of our each

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of our sample requirements were

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different but specifically we're looking

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at doing biomarker detection

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habitability characterization and

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building on our previous previous Mars

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missions Viking and Phoenix which

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utilize some of these same types of

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characterization techniques so an

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overview of what we're trying to

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accomplish on these missions we're

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looking at doing automated sample

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handling of some very dilute low

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concentration samples so we have a some

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sort of sample collector and a fluidics

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processor that interfaces to end up to a

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giant and analytical instrument suite

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so for a flukes processor we need to do

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a number of things including extracting

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the solution and sampling out particles

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degassing adjusting ionic strength or

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removing ions adjusting pH adjusting

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polarity and eventually just delivering

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to the number of instruments that we are

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interfaced with so in order to

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accomplish this we went through a

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process of starting with component level

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testing we had an idea of the things

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that we needed to accomplish and we

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started by miniaturizing these into

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smaller component pieces that we could

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test individually so shown here you have

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some bubble traps check valves dry

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reagent storage precision metering pumps

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and a concentrator that's used to all

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processes samples in different ways

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after analyzing the capabilities of

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these instruments we then integrated

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them into a number of manifolds and so

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here you can see that what we've

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accomplished is

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development of microfluidic manifolds

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that behave like fused multi-layer

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monoliths so there's a number of cut

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channels down to 250 microliters or up

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to one milliliter or approximately in

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diameter that run through these channels

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or that run through these manifolds to

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handle either 2 micro liter or larger

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milliliter size samples from these

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missions so splice 1.0 was the original

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og mandible that we we established and

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this was made for MCA and a connection

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to a micro with chemical lab I am and so

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you see a number of the components there

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this then increased in complexity when

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we developed splice MS and here the big

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thing being the the connection to the

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mass spectrometer and then finally into

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splice 2.0 which collected 2 which

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connects to a micro capillary

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electrophoresis instrument a micro what

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chemistry lab as well as a mass

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spectroscopy suite so in the case of all

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of these manifolds and each of these

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components were again tested

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individually and then integrated into

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one full suite that takes samples and

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allows them to be processed and

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delivered to multiple instruments in a

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lot of the cases we're working or in all

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of these manifolds

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we are working with flight heritage 50

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micro liter pumps and solenoid valves

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and the integration of these manifolds

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is down on the scale of inches so each

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one of these manifolds is about 5 inches

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by 5 inches and it's a weight is only

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about half of a kilogram so previous

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talks have kind of talked about some of

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these capabilities that we have but one

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of them is to go and connect to a sample

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collector and to wet out that sample

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collector and then retrieve all of the

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particles from that collector to move

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into the manifold with that we also have

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the ability to concentrate these

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particles on the order of 5 X

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concentration from 35 microliters down

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to 7 microliters within a 20 minute

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span and as well as a number of other

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autonomous

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processes so specifically with the

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autonomous development we've developed

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flight hardware to control all of our

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valves pumps etc to actually move these

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samples where they need to go so some

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routine functionality I'm we have dry

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reagent storage on board as well as

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bubble mitigation and pressure and

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temperature sensing when I say routine

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functionality I mean these aren't things

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that are specialized but they are very

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incredibly necessary for the sample

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handling that we're trying to accomplish

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out on Enceladus Europa deep space

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missions dry reagent storage of course

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it's very very powerful to have to

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reduce your volumes inside of the

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instrument eye as well as to have good

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control of concentrations within your

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manifold bubble mitigation we've had a

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number of types of bubble traps which

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we've all proved to work before but the

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the nice improvement in slice 2.0 that

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other manifolds haven't had is the

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integrated pressure and temperature

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sensing with the use of Honeywell

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pressure sensors shown there so with dry

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region storage what we've done is we've

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taken these porous polymer monoliths and

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actually dehydrated reagents onto the

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monoliths and found that with

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rehydration we can generally get back

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about 90 percent of what we have put

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onto the monolith to use for other

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processes so we have a characterize

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reconstitution of dry reagents from

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absorbance measurements by using and but

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we have characterized by using a single

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point detector which takes absorbance

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measurements so then see what's coming

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off of the monoliths that we can

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characterize and use so important to

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this was the concentration control what

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often happens with the dry reagent

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storage is that as the reagent is

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rehydrating especially if the kinetics

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or the reagent are very quick you get a

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very high concentration front and a very

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low concentration tail so if you look

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this concentration right here you can

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see that on a normal on a regular

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rehydration you start up with the

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concentration that's at or above a

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hundred percent that drops down to zero

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but in the case of staining staining

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cells staying any sort of materials that

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we want with fluorescent tags and things

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you really want a uniform concentration

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that you can deliver to those samples to

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be able to get the best to be able to

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get the best fluorescence or the best

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analysis of your samples and so the way

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that we've done this is we've actually

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developed a method for concentration

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control by dilution additi so we use

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irregular water dosing to take the

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enriched flood front and turn it into a

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uniform concentration that we can

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deliver to your sample so another

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another another use that we have found

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and which in the case of dry reagent

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storage is something that we have to

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have but in the case of air gap

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generation this is a feature that we do

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we determined after the fact to be

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useful for a process so ergo generation

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is using our bubble traps reverse of the

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way that they were meant to be used

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so rather than capturing bubbles you are

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now creating bubbles to create electric

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isolation or could who create electrical

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resistance inside of the manifold so in

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the case of mass spec and there's high

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voltage systems up to 20 kV that are

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being employed in order to analyze the

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sample and one of the concerns is then

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worrying about the electrical components

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that are on the manifold and so by

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having a secondary protection against

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those types of those types of voltage

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output systems and we're helping prevent

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you know mitigating risks basically

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within our manifolds so the nice thing

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about this air gap generation that we we

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learned was that it didn't matter how

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fast we created these air bubbles or how

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slow or how fast we dispense them for

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that matter we could get very very

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consistent output for the displacement

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that we wanted so if we pulled 5

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microliters it didn't matter whether it

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was up

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50 microliters per second or 0.2 micro

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liters per second we were always getting

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a 5 micro liter bubble that we could use

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for that secondary production so the

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nice part is that in the in more recent

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times the sensor development and contact

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diocese specifically for sample

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characterization and contact eysies have

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a bad rap sometimes for being very

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finicky um and I think this is something

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that needs to do continue to be

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developed as time goes on but what we've

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done is we've actually developed or what

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we found is that we can get pretty

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consistent results from our excitation

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and our occurrence when we're taking

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conductivity measurements so

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specifically below saturation a lot of

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our we're able to take good measurements

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on conductivity to make relative

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assumptions about what's happening

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inside I'm more development needs to be

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done on this but one of the special

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features has been the compact form

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factor development where we've started

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including multiple electrodes inside of

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small diameter fittings so overall this

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project has been sort of a maturation of

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technologies and a furthering of

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elements that we knew that worked before

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but combined together to be able to move

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this into an autonomous out IC world

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situation and so in the process of

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making these three manifolds what we've

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seen is a reducing that reduction in

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dead volume you know reduction in power

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requirements improvement of the features

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that we had need to be onto there the

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increase in capabilities for temperature

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monitoring as well as the increased

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capabilities for dry reagent storage and

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then the potential for IAC monitoring so

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overall we have increasing experimental

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capability and we have a transferable

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technology development that could be

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useful for any IC world mission let

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alone any habitability characterization

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mission that might be interested in any

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so special thanks to your team Leah I

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think Richard point is here today and

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he'll be giving a talk later this week

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and this was funded in part by NASA for

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constantly coltec program I am for more

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information you can go to Tony Rico list

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can your ph probe measure the ph of a

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sample that's a few microliters yes

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depending on what you mean by a few

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microliters and the tendency of the

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micro flow redesign is to use very very

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small ICS and to use very very small

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channels and so if your miniaturizing

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everything that is what we're aiming to