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>> We're back at Ellington.

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[phonetic] We talked
earlier about the suit

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that they're testing
this week, the modified,

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what's called the ACES suit
for the Space Shuttle Program

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that they're now getting
ready for the Orion Program

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and here we have Dustin Gohmert
here to tell us a little bit

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about the tests that they're
actually doing with that suit

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so one of the things
involves this seat, right?

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>> Dustin Gohmert: That's right.

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The seat was essentially
designed around the suit.

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We knew that that suit,
or a very similar version

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of that suit, would be
ultimately used in Orion

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and so we built it around the
suit but what we did additional

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to that is that was we built it
so it's adjustable to fit people

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who range from heights of say
4 foot 9 to 6 1/2 feet tall.

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And so there's a huge
range of adjustability.

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But by doing that to make
the Orion operable we had

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to put everyone so
that they would fit

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with basically the
same eye point

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so when they laid their
head in there they looked

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at the display the same no
matter what height you are.

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Well to do that we make
this seat, the seat pan

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that you actually
sit in, adjustable up

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and down the access
of their body.

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Well the testing we needed to
do was show that if we were

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in orbit and had a
depressed cabin contingency,

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well the first thing we do
is we'd get into our suit.

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Obviously that's the
most important thing.

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And then after that you have to
get into the seat to come home,

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because that's the next
most important thing.

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Well the suit gets large, it
grows quite a bit around you

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as it inflates so
to ingress the seat

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and the stiff enlarged suit, we
are testing different options

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for how to make this
seat more maneuverable

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on orbit [background
noise] so one of the things

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that we did was look
at different levels

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of adjustability so that we
could translate our bodies

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into the seat in
the pressurized suit

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and buckle ourselves
in for the ride home.

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>> Okay and I think we
actually have some footing

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of those tests taking place

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on the zero gravity
fly so we can show you.

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But the idea is that there
will be four of these seats

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in the Orion, correct?

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>> Dustin Gohmert:
That's correct.

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So this is just, this would
actually be seat two of four,

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the way it's set up with
the displays above it

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but you can imagine another
seat directly to the left of it

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and then two more
positioned directly below it

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so there's a grid work
of seats that are laid

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out in the vehicle, one
mirroring this one exactly.

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And then if you can imagine,
the folks who are below it,

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their heads are actually below
the feet of the pilot commander

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who are flying above them.

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>> So you know the Orion
is reasonably large

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for a spacecraft but still
a pretty small space,

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a lot of difficulty
maneuvering around,

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especially when you've
got the bulk suits on.

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>> Dustin Gohmert:
That's correct.

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A large spacecraft is still
relatively compact compared

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to what we're used to in and
the free volume that we have

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with the luxury of
being in here.

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And when the suit inflates
around the person, each person,

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you can imagine, expands
almost double their volume

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and so it gets tight
very quickly.

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And so we have to make the
most creative use of this space

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as possible to allow them

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to ingress the seats
for a safe trip home.

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>> And I guess you know we can
do that a lot here on the ground

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but having the microgravity
simulation is probably a

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big help.

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>> Dustin Gohmert: It's a
huge help for us because one

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of the things we get
in 1G environment,

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the earth's gravity
environment we're in right now,

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is we get the affects
of stability.

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We can't spin out of control.

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We can't lose our
grip and fly off.

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And so the zero gravity
environment,

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it gives us that real true sense
of how the suit will perform

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when we have that instability
and we have to fight

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to put ourselves in the
proper position and lay

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in the seat to get home.

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>> Okay it's probably worthwhile

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to explain how we
simulate that zero gravity.

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We get the suit and the
subjects in an airplane

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and they fly in parabolas.

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>> Dustin Gohmert:
That's correct.

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>> So you get a few seconds
of zero gravity floating

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as you go down, similar to how
you, when you go down a hill

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in a rollercoaster, right?

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>> Dustin Gohmert: That's right.

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So the plane will pull
up at extreme angle.

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During that time the gravity
is actually relatively intense.

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It's about 1.8 times
what we're feeling

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so you're very heavy
during that period.

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But when it gets to the top,
to the apex of that parabola,

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it dives down and it dives
at such a controlled rate

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that you fall inside the
aircraft at the same rate

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that the aircraft is diving
so you essentially float,

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free falling but you're
floating inside the aircraft

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so very similar to what
a zero G environment is.

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>> Okay and how did
the tests go this week?

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>> Dustin Gohmert: It went,
actually it went very well.

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We had great luck in proving
out the theory's that we had

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on how the person in the
suit would ingress the seat.

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And we learned quite a bit
about the mobility of the suit

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for non-seated but
translation like operations

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for perhaps contingency
tasks so we would look at it

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in future scenarios
and future missions.

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>> Okay do you need to do
these again before you're ready

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to fly or?

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>> Dustin Gohmert: I think

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from what we learned we'll
probably do a few iterations

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of design work before
we get there

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but this gave us the capability

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to learn what the
baseline performance

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of this suit is relatively
unmodified

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from a shuttle variant and also
give us an idea of what we need

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to do to tweak it to
make it really perfect

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for the Orion capsule.

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>> And I know you
have some other tests

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that you'll be performing
as the work progresses?

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>> Dustin Gohmert:
That's correct.

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We started in TSC in building
nine in the ARGOS Environment,

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Adaptive Response
Gravity Offload Simulator.

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>> Right.

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>> Dustin Gohmert: And
so you essentially hang

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from your belly very similar
to Mission Impossible style.

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>> Okay.

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>> Dustin Gohmert:
And you can float

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around in a frictionless
environment.

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But what we don't have is the
full degrees of freedom you get

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in true weightlessness and so
we use that as a starting point

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to get to this environment.

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And then we used this
environment to give us a feel

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for how realistic that was.

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That being a much more benign
environment we can test over

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and over again rapidly
and we plan to use

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that for our development
cycle and then use the flight

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for some more of our
validations of performance

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and more high tech or more
realistic environment.

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>> Alright well hopefully we'll
see more of that coming up.

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>> Dustin Gohmert: We hope so.

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>> Thanks so much for
talking with us, Dustin.

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>> Dustin Gohmert: Thank you.

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>> We'll go back now
to Mission Control

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and live coverage
of Life in Space.