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[ Silence ]

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>> Josh Byerly: This is
Mission Control Houston.

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We're going to be going down
to the NEEMO 16 mission,

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which is kicked off, and
it's going to be going

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on for the next two weeks.

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Yesterday we were
joined by Stan Love.

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Today we are lucky to be
joined by Mike Gernhardt

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who is the principal
investigator for NEEMO 16.

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So Mike, thank you so
much for joining us.

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Let's talk about
what's going on today

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down there off the
coast of Florida.

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>> Mike Gernhardt: Okay.

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So what we're trying to do
is jump out into the future,

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you know, 15 years and
understand what it's

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like at the nuts and bolts
level to work on an asteroid.

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And so we've got three
aspects of this mission.

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One was a robotic precursor
that we did months ago

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to document the remote sensing
of the coral reef in the area

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of the Aquarius habitat.

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The second element of
that is that we're diving

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with these DeepWorker
submersibles

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that are highly maneuverable,
single-piloted submersibles,

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that are the analog of the
space exploration vehicle

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that we're developing
under the AES program.

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And then the third aspect
is the saturation crew

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who are saturated in the
Aquarius habitat, and the route,

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investigating different methods
of restraint, translation,

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and different sampling
techniques for what it would be

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like to actually
work on an asteroid.

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And today they're on Day
Two of the EVA only circuit.

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As we said, we've actually
developed an underwater

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asteroid, that's
about 500 feet across,

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and there's all these
different sampling flights

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that we're using consistently
with different restraint

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and translation techniques.

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>> Josh Byerly: Let's talk
about translation a little bit.

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You know, it sounds like
something that would be

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so easy here on earth,

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but anybody who has watched a
Space Station spacewalk knows

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that, you know, moving
around and figuring out where

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to put your hands and
your feet is, you know,

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one of the biggest challenges
of doing a spacewalk.

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So talk a little bit about
how that's different.

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How is it more challenging
on an asteroid?

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And what are you guys
learning in terms of that?

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>> Mike Gernhardt:
Yeah, great question.

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And I always say, like, asteroid
is like the worst combination

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of lunar and microgravity.

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On a Space Station we
have complete control

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over the translation pads.

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We have handholds.

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We have all these different
restraints; foot restraints,

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body restraint tethers
and so forth.

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On an asteroid we
have none of that.

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And so we're investigating
laying out translation lines

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that we would anchor at one
point, probably fly the SEV

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across to another point where
we could anchor that line.

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We're trying to understand
how much stability we get

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out of these translation
lines and what kinds

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of tasks we can do on them.

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The other thing we're looking
at is this thing we've invented

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that we call the
Lightweight Boom.

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And picture this telescopic
boom that we anchor at one end

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and then you deploy it, and then
you can anchor the other end

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and then you can short
tether yourself to it

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or use a body restraint
tether and then reach down

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and do the sampling tasks, and
then you can release the anchor

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at one end and sort of step
the boom across the asteroid.

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Of course, we don't know if we
really can anchor to asteroids

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of different characteristics.

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So what we're assessing
here is the benefit

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of these different
techniques if we could anchor.

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And then the third
thing that we're looking

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at with the crew today is use of
jet packs, and that looks good

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for certain tasks but
not for other tasks.

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Later in the mission we're going
to bring the submersibles up

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and work with the crew.

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And they'll actually be in
foot restraints on the end

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of an astronaut positioning
arm on these submersibles

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that are the equivalent
of the SEV,

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and then we'll repeat the same
circuit with those techniques.

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And we're collecting
all these metrics

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to understand what the best
combination of restraint

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and translation system,
crew size and distribution,

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all those kinds of things that
will inform a more optimal

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and cost-effective
development of the hardware

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when we actually go to an
asteroid or a moon of Mars.

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>> Josh Byerly: So you
said the word, jet packs;

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so I have to ask about that.

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Are we talking about
looking at something

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like what Bruce McCandless
used back during

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that famous shuttle picture?

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Is it sort of like that?

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Or what?

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>> Mike Gernhardt: Yeah.

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So it's quite a bit -- it
will be quite a bit different

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than the safer jet packs that
we have on the Space Station.

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We'll have a lot more
Delta V. It will be sort

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of a nominal thing versus
a contingency thing.

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We're simulating that
underwater with a thruster pack

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on the back of the crew members.

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And we're -- you
know, we're looking

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at it today as a jet pack only.

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And that's probably not totally
realistic, in the sense, that,

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if we didn't have a space
exploration vehicle,

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you would have to go
from the deep space hab,

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potentially a kilometer or so
away to the asteroid and back.

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And if we have to do
that with a jet pack,

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it becomes something
more than a jet pack.

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It becomes a device that you can
do targeted burns and so forth.

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But what's looking
promising from NEEMO 15

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and the work we've done in our
asteroid sim is the combination

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of this very capable jet pack

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and the space exploration
vehicle where astronauts can be

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on a positioning arm, or they
can exert off the vehicle

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with this jet pack and do
some local reconnaissance,

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maybe pick up what we
call a float sample,

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which is just a rock that's
not attached to anything.

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And then when we have to do
the more detailed, you know,

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hammer chip samples or deploy
seismic devices or drills

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and so forth, the SEV
would then come in

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and the crew members would get
in the astronaut positioning arm

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and do the more fine task,
much the same way we do

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on Station with the SSR mask.

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>> Josh Byerly: You know,
we talked to Stan yesterday

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about what it's like to work
in the water and how closely

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that mimics what we
would see in space.

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Well, I want to get
your take on it too.

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What does the water teach us?

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And you know, what are sort of
the pros and cons of doing it?

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>> Mike Gernhardt: Yeah,
and there are pros and cons.

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The good thing about water is
we can be neutrally buoyant.

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We do have the viscosity
and the drag of water,

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which becomes more of a
factor the faster you go.

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So on these very slow
methodical, you know,

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close in task, it's actually
a pretty good simulation.

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And then as we know from the
Neutral Buoyancy Lab training

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that we do, it's about as good
an integrated choreography

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simulated environment
as we can get,

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but it's not the
only environment.

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So we actually have,
within our analog program,

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another simulation of an
asteroid where we've integrated

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that with the Virtual
Reality Lab and the jet packs

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so that we have the proper
dynamics of microgravity.

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And so we kind of
-- I always say

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that each analog is one chapter
in the story of how we're going

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to work on an asteroid.

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So we have to do all of
these different analogues

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and then put those chapters
together to have the story

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of the pass board to
working on an asteroid.

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>> Josh Byerly: So what
is ahead for the crew?

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I mean, this is early on
in the NEEMO 16 mission.

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So what are they going
to be doing for the rest

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of this week and next week?

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And what's ahead for them?

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>> Mike Gernhardt: So they're
doing what we call the EVA only

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circuit now, and they're
evaluating again this standard

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set of task across this
500 foot, you know,

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simulated asteroid under
different techniques.

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So they'll be doing
that through Friday.

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And then starting Friday,
we bring the submersibles up

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and we start doing the same
circuit with the divers,

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saturation diver crew
members, on the submersibles

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in different combinations
of working

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with just an astronaut
positioning arm,

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and one crew member outside.

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Another condition we call
Condition 6B, is two astronauts

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on the submersible or
space exploration vehicle.

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One is on the astronaut
positioning arm,

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the other is on a jet pack.

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And then we have another
variation where they can go on

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and off the arm, the
jet packs and so forth.

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And again, we have
very specific metrics

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by which we evaluate
our performance

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and scientific results.

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And so then there will be
like four days of that.

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There's also some other, like,
science sort of habitability,

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psychological experiments that
we're doing inside the habitat.

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And of course, I failed
to mention that all

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of this is being done with
a 52nd each way time delay,

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and that's a big
difference between them,

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anything we've done in space
previously and what we're going

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to have to do on an asteroid.

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And by simulating that, we
really get into the nuts

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and bolts of the best way
to manage the operation,

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to simulate the data
to do replant

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and so forth [Background
Discussion].

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And we're learning tons
every day from that.

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>> Josh Byerly: It's the
last question for you, Mike.

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It's somebody who's
been in space before.

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Does it get you excited
as we get,

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you know, closer and closer?

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I mean, every time you guys do
one of these tests it puts us

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that much closer to actually
going and finding one

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of these missions in the future.

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So what -- yeah, how do you
feel doing something like that?

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>> Mike Gernhardt: Yeah.

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No, that's a great question.

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And it really is exciting

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because I think we're
doing this thing right.

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We're -- instead of
writing the requirements

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and building hardware for
years and years and years

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and then figuring out how we're
going to operate at the nuts

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and bolts level, you know, our
great team has jumped out ahead,

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and we're trying to understand
those operations early enough

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that we can inform the design
of cost-effective hardware.

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And I'm very optimistic.

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I'm actually very pleased
with what we're learning.

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You know, if you go back
two and a half years,

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no one had the first clue
of how humans were going

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to operate on an asteroid.

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Now we're talking specific tool
designs and operational methods,

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and it does make it
just that much realer.

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And then I also am
optimistic, that,

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because of the work
we're doing when we go

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to develop this hardware, we
can do it more cost effectively.

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And I think we need, as an
agency, to learn how to do that,

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because we have, you know,
essentially limited funds,

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and we need to go and do
exploration with the funds

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that we have, and this is
part of that whole process.

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>> Josh Byerly: Well,
Mike Gernhardt,

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we want to thank
you for joining us.

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It's exciting stuff you
guys are doing down there.

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We're going to keep watching,
how the team is operating

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over the next several days down
there off the coast of Florida.

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Of course, if you would
like to follow along

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with the NEEMO 16 mission or
check out some of the WebCams

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that are currently
broadcasting from the bottom

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of the ocean floor, just log
on to www.NASA.gov/Neemo.