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welcome to building nine the space

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vehicle mock-up facility here at johnson

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space center and as you mentioned the

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home of this year's desert or rats

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research and technology studies

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test going on this year we're having an

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asteroid stimulation and that involves

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several different elements but one of

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them is this multi-mission space

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exploration vehicle which actually has

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two astronauts or crew members at a time

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living in it for about three days at a

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time and switching off throughout the

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10-day study all this uh to uh

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see what it's like to

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explore an asteroid and see what uh

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technologies we're gonna need for that

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in the future and one of them of course

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is the powering of the suv the rover

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that we're using and here to tell us

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about that we have abby ryan who is the

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lead engineer on the fuel cell that

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we're using to power it this year thanks

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for joining us abby yeah no problem

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brandi okay well we're gonna walk this

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way this is the space exploration

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vehicle that we're powering and then

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over here

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we have the fuel cell itself that abby's

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gonna tell us about so what is a fuel

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cell a fuel cell is a power source that

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we've used in space ever since gemini on

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apollo on space shuttle and we're hoping

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for future missions what it does is it

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takes hydrogen and oxygen and

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essentially smushes them together in a

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big box and out you get power and water

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there's obviously a lot of chemistry

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involved in that that's the basic idea

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so it's great for space because we get

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things that we actually want to use aka

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power and water that's safe for the crew

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to drink you can use it in vehicle

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cooling and you can make your food with

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it in the galley

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okay so in this case they're using it to

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power the displays inside the rover

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everything that's running in the mmscb

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right now all the displays

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and also their air conditioning which we

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obviously don't really have in space but

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very important here in houston texas

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we're powering that as well we're also

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powering ourselves so there's absolutely

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no wall power being used in this demo

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while the fuel cell is running so it's

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definitely more of a space like

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configuration okay and so why is it

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important to go ahead and start looking

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at how this would work how it would fit

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in with other other systems well it's

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definitely important for us we're

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testing out a lot of new technology for

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fuel cells obviously the space shuttle

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was our last big fuel cell

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program and that technology is about 40

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years old by this point so we've got a

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lot of new technology in here regulators

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that were designed here at nasa so we're

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getting a lot of good data on that it's

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also important for the mmseb team to be

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able to run off of a space power source

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we can do things like plot their power

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usage over the four or five hours that

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we're running and give them good data on

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what type of power source they're going

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to need how much power they're using on

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a daily basis to run all their

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operations stuff that wall power just

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won't tell you

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so if they want to read at night how

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much is that light cost exactly every

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time they turn on a light we can see a

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blip anytime they're

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powering an engine up

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even though it's all simulated we're

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still trying to simulate that power so

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we can give them that data okay well and

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then you also said um that it creates

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when you put the hydrogen and oxygen

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together h2o water and that gets us into

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kind of the in-situ resource utilization

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definitely one of the things we're going

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to want to do in the future is bring as

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many uh or use as many resources from

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what we're exploring as we can so tell

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us a little bit about that yeah

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absolutely well the fuel cell like i

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said yeah it creates water that's it's

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only byproduct so a lot like an engine

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creates exhaust a fuel cell creates

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steam and water um in the water like i

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said it's fully potable the crew could

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drink it um but you could also use that

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water with an electrolyzer system and

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what an electrolyzer does is essentially

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the opposite of a fuel cell so it takes

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water in and splits it back into the two

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gases hydrogen oxygen

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so it takes power in and puts gas out we

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take gas in put power and water out so

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you could kind of come up with a system

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where now these can work together so

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that you're constantly creating power

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and water and gases

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you could add in based on where you're

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going

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either systems that take water from the

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ground we've for instance found there's

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a lot more water on the moon than we

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thought there was we think the same with

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mars and we don't know yet about an

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asteroid

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but we think that we can actually take

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water from the dirt that we find in the

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ground by heating it up and extracting

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the water that way

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you can also find hydrogen in martian

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atmosphere it's a methane atmosphere so

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you can break apart that methane use

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that hydrogen in the fuel cell so it's

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all about what you said in situ resource

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utilization finding

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what you can get that's helpful to us

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out of the product that's already there

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which is atmosphere and dirt

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we have a lot of that so how can we get

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things that we want out of it especially

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as we start going further out into the

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solar system or

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further distant planets we're not going

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to want to bring this stuff with us

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because it's heavy right and you know

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even a cargo mission you know to get to

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mars it takes about eight months so if

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you want water now you need to figure

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out how to make it where you are right

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okay well how is the test going so far

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so far it's been going great this is our

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third day running with the mmsev and

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we've done about four and a half hour

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runs each time um basically we're

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limited by the amount of reactant we can

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put in these tanks um and they're kind

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of small but it's what we had in the lab

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so so far everything's been great um

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we've been able to run all of their um

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their power for the days we've gotten

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some great graphs and um i just really

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couldn't be asking for it to go better

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so i'm very excited well and all this

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was built by nasa yeah here at jsc um

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all of the material inside is a fuel

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cells that we built here in our lab

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it's the propulsion and power division

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and we work on this in the energy

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systems test area here at jsc the

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housing medicine was built by langley

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out in virginia

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it's called the pup or the portable

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utility palette and it's basically part

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of the mmscb architecture

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it's detachable from the mms cv so you

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could leave it at the deep space hub and

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you know just put in it maybe what you

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want so if you're going on a week-long

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mission and you want power and water

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maybe you take the fuel cell with you or

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if you're going somewhere else just for

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a day or two maybe you want something

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else to bring with you instead extra

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tools or whatever so the idea is that

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you can kind of detach what you want or

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don't want so langley is working on that

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project and they built this whole

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housing for us so we were kind of

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constrained by that and ended up

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building the system up from there and i

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think you were telling me you think you

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can actually get it a little smaller

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right definitely we're working on a

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newer technology like i said it's always

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you know we're definitely always pushing

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for lighter meaner faster all of those

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things and with fuel cells the biggest

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change that we can make is getting rid

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of what we call the balance of plant or

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the bop and that's all of these tubes

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and pumps that you see right here we

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think that we can make that system a lot

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smaller one of the ways that we're

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working on doing that is by getting rid

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of all of our water management right now

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the way that the fuel cell gets water to

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come out of this tube right here is just

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by shoving extra gas through the fuel

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cell to move it through and then you

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need pumps to kind of pump it through

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the system to get it out so what we're

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working on is what we would call a

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non-flow through fuel cell meaning that

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we aren't flowing through the gases to

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move the water instead what we would be

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doing would be wicking the water out of

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each cell kind of like water off of a

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duck's back

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where it just wants to go

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that way

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so that's what we're working on what

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that would do is get rid of two of the

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pumps that we have in this system it

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would get rid of three different tanks

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so we're working on just getting rid of

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all the ancillary components and making

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it a smaller system great and i guess

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you know smaller is better probably for

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here on earth too or the ways we could

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use it here absolutely right now this is

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kind of an intimidating system to stick

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in your car in your house but if we can

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make this smaller then maybe folks will

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want to actually start really looking at

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fuel cell cars as an option

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people are you know i think starting to

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get on board with hybrid and electric

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cars and i think fuel cell cars in the

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next step there's already a few

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companies honda and toyota to make fuel

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cell cars

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it's great because here on earth you

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don't need the oxygen tank the air has

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enough oxygen to run a fuel cell

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and so all you would need is hydrogen

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with you

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it's you know a gas that kind of scares

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people but

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i think they get hindenburg images in

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mind but um but it's definitely safe if

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you handle it correctly and

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it's one of those things that when you

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educate people and kind of you know

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introduce a new technology to them and

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show them all the ways it can benefit um

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i think that it can really take off like

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i said the only you know exhaust from

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our system is steam and so that's a lot

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better for the environment if we can you

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know start working on that so you can

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have the steam also you can get water

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straight from the tap here right yeah

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absolutely right this is our fill plate

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right down here

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it makes it easy to be able to fill up

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our tanks there's a hydrogen port and

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oxygen port and that spout down below

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empties our water tank inside so you

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could stick a cup underneath there open

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up the spout and drink the water if you

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wanted we don't have a cup with this but

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you have tried it and it's safe and

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personally perfectly drinkable yeah i am

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i one time kept about three gatorade

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bottles of fuel cell water and had a

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fish living in a fish tank with fuel

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cell water for a few days so um it

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didn't die it's fine so yeah it's fully

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drinkable it's actually um in order for

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the human body to really use it the way

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that we are used to using water we

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actually have to add biocides to it it's

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too clean for our bodies to deal with um

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so that's kind of an interesting fact

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all right so we should have lots of uses

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for that in the future i hope so thanks

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so much for talking with us again this