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so i'm joined now in mission control

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houston by somebody who's pretty

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familiar with uh what this spacewalk is

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going to entail nasa astronaut doug

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wheelock doug thanks so much for joining

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me and you've done this before you've

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done almost this exact same spacewalk uh

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back in 2010. yeah absolutely it's a

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little bit different failure that we're

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experiencing uh this time around but um

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the spacewalks to remove this old pump

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module and replace it with a new spare

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is exactly the same as what we did in

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2010 so we we had a lot of lessons

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learned back then and so we've

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implemented those changes into our

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procedures in the in the way that we

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prepare our suits and

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our tools and so we'll be ready to go on

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saturday and so

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obviously a lot of similarities it so it

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really is identical are there any

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differences

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uh well the difference is now we we

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learned it was sort of difficult to uh

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disconnect these ammonia connectors back

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in 2010 the pressure we were running

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pretty high at operational pressures 360

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psi

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and so i had a difficult time

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disconnecting these connectors and we

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learned in the latter two space walks

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during that time frame

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that if we lowered that pressure it'd

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certainly help us

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in disconnecting and reconnecting those

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ammonia lines so we learned that and

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we've we've kind of done some simulation

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and we've uh we're going to drop the

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pressure so to kind of give these guys a

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little bit of a head start when they get

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outside so so some lessons learned

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already so

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this is some this is a spacewalk that

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wasn't planned this is an unplanned

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spacewalk

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so i imagine there's got to be a lot of

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stuff to do on orbit just to get ready i

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mean what are the crews been doing over

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the last couple of days to try and

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prepare it yeah that's right it's it's

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we refer to it as a contingency

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spacewalk and so um the the skills

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really though are fundamental and we

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practice all of these skills

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uh just rehearse them over and over

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again in the pool and the crew has done

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these particular skills

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and so the the skills are the same

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but space always has surprises for us

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especially when we go outside a lot of

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this mechanical uh hardware that's

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operating outside

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is bombarded with all kinds of little

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micro meteor uh

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uh little tiny flecks and also um the

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radiation outside and the temperature

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swings that we have in day and night

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passes uh this these mechanical devices

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don't operate like they do here on earth

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or underwater in the pool and so we try

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to simulate those malfunctions and

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prepare the crew

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to face those should they occur when

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they get outside

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and we actually have some video from

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your last spacewalk maybe you can walk

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us through a couple of the other

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procedures

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sure i'm pretty sure there's a good

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example yeah you see here into something

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you don't expect well the robotic arm is

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moving into place and you can see you'll

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probably see some what looks like

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snowflakes and some of these views and

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that's ammonia that's kind of leaking

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out of this system and you'll see that

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there are three large connectors in one

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small connector that they're going to

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have to disconnect and then reconnect to

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the new pump module and here i had a

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kind of do i have a makeshift hammer to

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try to break the ice off of this uh

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connector the ammonia formed ice inside

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that cavity there you can see a little

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bit of snow flurries there and there you

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can see the ammonia leaking out of the

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connector as well

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we think that we've got a good solution

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to this now where we can

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lower that pressure and give us a little

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bit of a better chance of success on the

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first run

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disconnecting these connectors this pump

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module is really a big piece of hardware

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it's uh

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it weighs about 800 pounds and

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and

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although things everything is weightless

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in space it still has mass and f still

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equals m a

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in space and so so when you're moving

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this big kind of double door

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refrigerator size piece of hardware

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around it and it's the mass distribution

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and the thing is not symmetric and so

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so it's got some interesting handling

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qualities that we also simulate in our

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virtual reality lab here in houston you

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can see me on the arm there hoisting

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that big um

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uh pump module out of the uh out of its

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uh place there on the truss and then

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tracy and i went out to uh

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to get the new pump module and we have

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three spares on board currently so we're

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going to use one of those uh with these

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coming up ebas that'll leave us with two

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spares but the crew will will also go

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and get a spare

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off of one of the outside it's kind of

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like a porch area where we keep a lot of

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these spare parts and they'll return

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that pump module here's a good view of

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us

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inserting the new pump module back in

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2010

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into its slot and then you bolt it down

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it's got four bolts that hold it in

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place and it's also got these four

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ammonia connectors and also six five

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electrical power

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cables that connect to it to run it from

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inside and then um it as you saw that we

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were coming that last scene we were

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coming back into the airlock and and

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part of what we have to do we have to be

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ready for is to um if we get ammonia on

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these suits we really need we do what we

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call is as a bake out and so we we try

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to stay into the sun for for a period of

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time and we have smart people on the

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ground to kind of calculate

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how much ammonia came out how much could

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have contacted the suits and how long we

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should stay in sunlight to uh to let

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that sublimate to space so we don't

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bring drops of that ammonia inside of

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the space station yeah it probably

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wouldn't make for a good atmosphere

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bunch of ammonia floating around yeah it

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would not be a good day if we brought

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ammonia inside so we but we do have

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precautions for that and um and the crew

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inside is going to be working very hard

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as well to get these guys back inside

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when they're done with their spacewalks

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and they are integral part of

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of the cleanup and also the bake out and

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um and preparation of the station for

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when these suits come back inside uh so

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we're ready for any contingency and so

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you're kind of one of the resident

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experts on this having done it before so

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what and you're going to be pretty

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closely involved in these upcoming

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spacewalks as well what's your role

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going to be here in michigan we've had

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just teams of people working here at

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johnson space center to get the crew

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ready and get the vehicle ready and and

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the suits ready as well and so uh for

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all three of these spacewalks on the

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capcom console which is the capsule

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communicator uh console here in mission

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control just sits just to the right of

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the flight director who is in charge of

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the uh of the control room at the time

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so i'll be sitting on um i'll be sitting

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a right seat

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at the capcom console which we call

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ground iv so i'll be

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talking to the crew while they're

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outside so kind of walking through their

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timeline i'll have their timeline in

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front of me they don't they probably

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will have parts of it memorized

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and lots of it practiced inside with

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body control and stuff inside of the

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station before they go out and we also

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have

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mock-ups of the fluid connectors inside

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the space station so they can practice

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moving these bales and operating these

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connectors so i'll be sitting

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and talking to the crew and hopefully uh

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we'll have a smooth day on saturday as

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we disconnect these lines from the old

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pump

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and uh we'll we'll walk them through

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their timeline did you get a chance to

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teach them that hammer technique at all

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yeah we uh we've had a couple of video

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conferences well several video

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conferences with the crew and so

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um i

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kind of gave them some tips on how to

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position their body part part of um

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probably the the greatest nuance when

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you're outside working especially

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is to

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get things in a comfortable work area

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because the suit is kind of bulky and

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it's pressurized and so it uh it it

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it'll work against you and when you get

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in a wrestling match with your suit the

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suit's going to win so so during our

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training we we learn to work with the

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suit and have the suit work for us and

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so we we try to get the crews to get

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their work site in a good working work

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envelope

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and then also to position themselves to

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counteract uh forces and torque and

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things like that okay well again nasa

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astronaut doug wheelock he's done this

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spacewalk before and he'll be helping

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them out as they kick it off on saturday

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doug thanks so much for joining me