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for now why don't we go ahead and head

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out to the marshall space flight center

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in huntsville alabama where laurie megs

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is standing by live at the payload

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operations integration center hey lori

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we're uh we're talking a little bit

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about material science this week that's

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right we sure are we're talking about a

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lot of material science a lot of

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materials have been tested on the

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international space station so far

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anything from metals to ceramics to

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plastics and a couple of workhorses that

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are managed here at the marshall space

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flight center here in the payload

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operations integration center have

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helped process those samples they're the

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microgravity science glove box and the

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materials science research rack and

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joining me now is one of their operation

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controllers john cramer thanks for

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joining us today john tell us what your

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team does here for those two facilities

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we operate the micro gravity science

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glove box which provides a

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controlled environment for the crew to

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be able to perform experiments

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and how do you help the crew process

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materials well the crew is very involved

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in this with the crew activities and

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they follow a set of procedures and

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written procedures and we're there to

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help them if they have any questions

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and you're kind of under the gun right

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now i guess you could say we had some

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samples come up on the dragon and those

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samples have to be processed and then

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returned on the dragon so tell us about

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that right now what you're working on

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well right now we're working on cslm

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cslm stands for coarsening in solid

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liquid mixtures

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and

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they are

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life limited so they have to go up and

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come down as quickly as possible

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and

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what are the samples the samples right

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now that are there are a

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a lead 10 mixture

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they're heated to

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specific temperatures and

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then they solidify and they come back

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down on the ground and they're looked at

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so how long does it take to process a

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sample

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that they have chosen um

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i believe we have six samples uh we've

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gone through three sample runs so far

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um

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they anywhere from a few hours to a few

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days

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and a couple more weeks of this and then

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and then it just keeps on going right it

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keeps on going yes it does what else are

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we looking forward to we're after cslm i

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believe we're doing a payload called

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bass and then from there it's uh payload

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ccf saudi and in space and you're

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supposed to be on consoles so i'll let

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you get back to it thank you thanks so

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much for joining us john i also had the

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opportunity to speak with sean reagan

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and he is the manager of the material

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science research rack here at the

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marshall space flight center and he's

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going to tell us what the materials

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science research rack is used for

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materials science research rack is for

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processing different types of materials

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on orbit

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basically we're taking materials melting

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them having them re-solidify in in the

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microgravity environment of space so

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that way you remove the effects of

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gravity

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the pi the principal investigators will

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take those and compare that to what

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actually happens on the ground and

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there's a lot of things they can

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discover when they remove those gravity

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effects from that so this rack provides

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us the opportunity to go do that with

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different types of samples so sean what

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kinds of samples have we seen in the

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materials rack

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we've seen mostly metal samples

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processed so far the principal

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investigators will determine what type

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of samples they would like to process

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that will go through a science community

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review to make sure that everybody

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agrees yes that's a good thing for us to

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go process on orbit because it does take

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a lot to get get samples up to to the

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space station to process so that's been

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the main thing that we've been going

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through so far is the metals but we can

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process different types of samples as

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well

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so it really is an international

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partnership yes it is uh the european

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space agency esa has been involved

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heavily with us on this in fact they

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built what we call the right side of the

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rack they built the the furnace and the

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processing

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samples that go on that side

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nasa built the the left side of the rack

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to provide power data thermal

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conditioning and then so far esa has

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been building the sample cartridge

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assemblies that are processed within the

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rack

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but we're also starting to

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build our own for nasa right yes we've

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started a a project here at marshall

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space flight center to build sample

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cartridge assemblies for nasa so we have

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more u.s principal investigator

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involvement in the rack as well

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let's talk a little bit about the

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upgrades you've upgraded some software

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on the rack right we have we just

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finished an upgrade to the software it

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was uploaded to the rack back in

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december basically this software upgrade

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will

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give us the room that if we have a

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communication problem between the rack

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and the rest of space station while

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we're processing at high temperatures

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we won't have to do what we call a hard

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shutdown basically where we remove all

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power and services from the rack at

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those high temperatures it puts us into

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a controlled cooldown mode which is

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better for the rack and for the sample

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being processed as well it prevents us

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from having other issues with the rack

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what temperatures are we talking about

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we're processing generally in the 1000

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degrees c range uh the rack can go up to

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1200 degrees c on up to 1400 degrees c

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but so far we've not had any samples

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processed at those temperatures

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it works just fine at the lower

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temperatures if you call that low right

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if you call that low yes

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what are the benefits that we learn back

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on earth from from the msrr

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samples when you remove the gravity

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effects here on earth and processed in

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the microgravity environment of space it

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lets the principal investigators see a

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lot better about how the materials come

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together and form

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different types of materials and

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different type of bonds between the

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materials that can be applied to

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lots of manufacturing

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items back on earth whether it be

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turbine blades or you know high-speed

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turbine blades or other items all across

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the spectrum it has a wide ranging

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impact back here on earth

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thanks to sean for that and that'll do

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it for us from here at the payload