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so a lot of the work being done these

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days on board the international space

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station not only to continue scientific

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research and things like that but also

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to prepare us for what's coming next

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exploration to very far off destinations

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asteroids mars moon all these places

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we're really excited to go and while

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there's a lot of work being done in

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space there's also a lot of work being

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done down here on the ground one of

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those projects taking place here at the

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johnson space center is the the

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development of the space suits

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that future orion travelers might be

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wearing joining me now to talk about the

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work that's taking place is nasa

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astronaut rex walheim who's the chief of

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the exploration branch inside of the

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astronaut office works pretty heavily

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with orion has been very integral in a

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lot of these uh tests now first off uh

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the suit let's talk about the zoo real

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quick it's very familiar suit yes

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orange pumpkin suit that they wore on

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the shuttle yep and that's why the term

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maces are the modified aces suit which

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is uh it's a offshoot of the suit we

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wore during the space shuttle's launch

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and entry phases so

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the modified portion is what we're

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working on to try to get it to do more

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than it did during the shuttle program

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and that more that you guys were working

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on so it was a launch and entry suit so

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the astronauts they only wore it when

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they were launching off and when they

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were coming back down

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and what do we want to add to so we want

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to add the capability of doing an eva or

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a space walk with this suit which is a

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tricky proposition because it was

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designed originally as an asus suit as

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just launch an entry so it could hold

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pressure but it wasn't meant to give you

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the mobility to do all the types of

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tasks you would generally do on a

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spacewalk

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now why would we want to just i mean

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because traditionally we've had two

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suits we've had the launch and entry and

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we've had the great big emu the great

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big white space walking suit why would

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we just want one you bet now if i had my

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druthers i'd take my white emu spacewalk

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and suit with me wherever i go in space

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however you know with the orion program

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we're going to beyond low earth orbits

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we're going out to these deep space

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destinations that it takes a lot of uh a

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lot of thrust and a lot of gas to get

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out there so weight is a big issue so

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anything we can do to reduce the weight

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the launch weight and the landing weight

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actually also

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is very important so if we can make a

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suit that can do both the launch and

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entry which the orange

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asus suit did in the shuttle area and

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also was able to carry out the eva or

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the spacewalk functions that our big

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white space walking suit did then we can

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save a tremendous amount of weight so

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very real reason to be doing this work

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and been doing some pretty cool tests in

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the pool we'll get to those in a second

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what's some of the work that you guys

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have been doing up until this point sure

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you know to prepare to kind of advance

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the suit to where it is now well we've

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been taking an incremental approach so

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we're doing step by step and the first

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step is we we put ourselves in the the

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old aces suit and you know figured out

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where the pressure points were and

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things like that and uh it was pretty

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tricky to work in that and that the

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smart guys in the suit labs they figured

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out well if you sized it differently if

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you kept it as tight as you can it's

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going to be a lot more comfortable and

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you're going to be able to be able to

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move around a lot better so we started

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with that and one of the things we

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quickly realized was that the gloves

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were not good enough the gloves we used

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in the uh in the aces suit when we're on

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the launch and entry

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they're meant to be used non-pressurized

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unless there's an emergency

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and then they would pressurize but

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they're not they don't have very good

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tactile feel when you're pressurized so

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we realized quickly that these gloves

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aren't going to be good enough to do a

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space walk with so we switched out what

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are called phase six gloves those are

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our great space walking gloves that we

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use on our on our white

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emu spacesuit so we adapted the aces to

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be able to handle those kind of uh those

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kind of gloves there's also some

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important things we need to do with the

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life controls life support system so the

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aces suit on the shuttle it's it flows

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overboard it's kind of what we call an

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open loop so it would flow the the air

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you breathe out overboard into the cabin

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whereas the you can't do that on a

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spacewalk because you'd use so much uh

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so much oxygen that it would be

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prohibitive so uh they modified the asus

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so that it has a closed circulation

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system so that it can recycle the air so

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you're not losing all that oxygen so now

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you're kind of mirroring a little bit of

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what the emu already exactly exactly so

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then we got so now we had the closed

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loop system we had the the phase six

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gloves well one of the things we need is

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ability to stabilize ourselves at a work

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site and to do that we commonly on our

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spacewalks on the space station use

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what's called a portable foot restraint

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or a pfr and a portable foot restraint

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you just put your your feet in there you

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put them under a toe clip and you you

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clip your heels underneath the clip and

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you can stay there with both hands free

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and be able to work

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the ace's suit the original one with the

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shuttle you couldn't do that and so one

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of the most recent modifications we did

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was add

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these these boots from the emu so that

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we'd be able to you know use these

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portable foot restraints so we added

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that

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proved out to be a really useful uh

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useful addition

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now then even if we have these these

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good these good uh gloves and good boots

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another problem we have with asus it

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just isn't very mobile and so we knew

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that from the start that we're gonna

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have a problem with mobility because

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when it's pressurized it's just not an

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emu where you can move it really nicely

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so um we've added some arm bearings to

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be able to move the arms a little bit

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and so

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uh on the test we did last week we had

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two suits in the water for the first

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time two modified asus suits for the

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first time and i worked with dan burbank

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and he had the uh the modified aces

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without the arm bearings and i had them

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with the arm bearing so we got to

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compare that and see how what those arm

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brings do for you and then next week

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we'll get in the pool again dan and i

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and i get the suit without the arm

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bearings and dan gets the arm bearing so

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uh we actually have some of the video

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from last week as well so we can see you

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guys working in the pool so just i mean

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walk me through what are we looking at

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yeah so you see the familiar orange suit

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that we wore on the shuttle but you also

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see a bunch of white objects number the

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one the big ones you see on my legs

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there and dan's legs are weights we have

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to have weights to keep us neutrally

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buoyant but then you'll see a little bit

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below you see that we've got the white

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boots on you can see that so those are

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the uh the spacesuit the emu boots and

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we have white gloves which are phase six

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uh gloves also

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and so uh it's kind of a combination

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there of the of the two suits

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and uh here we're testing our mobility

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basically we're getting into the in and

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out of the uh the space station airlock

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now it's not only tasks we would do on

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an orion mission to an asteroid but it's

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a it's a typical task we've trained on

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many times before so we can test our

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mobility and see how well we can move

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around there

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and again here we're doing some more

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translation tasks and how well you can

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move around uh with these new arm

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bearings and uh with your phase six

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gloves and your boots

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and i remember you talking a little bit

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about you know getting into the pool

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it's an important step because you kind

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of learn things about the suit that you

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didn't even think about right and it's a

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it's a big trade-off it is not an easy

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thing to go to one suit from two suits

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the reason we had two suits was because

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they were they were they were

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specialized and they own they had their

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each they had their own specific

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function

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so when you're trying to combine two

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suits it gets a little tricky obviously

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when you when you have only one suit

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when you're in the launch phase you're

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gonna be unpressurized nominally so

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normally you wouldn't have a pressure so

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you want the suit to fit comfortably

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when you're just sitting in the rocket

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during the launch phase

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and uh so that's important because

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you're there you're in there you're

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gonna be there for a minute many hours

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you know so but then if you're gonna do

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a space walk that comfortable you know

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loose-fitting suit may not be great for

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doing a spacewalk when it's pressurized

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because the suit bulges out and you know

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it tends to extend now you can't move as

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well so it can be a bit of a problem

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from that so you got to have a a bit of

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a

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hurt when it's unpressurized but you're

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still able to function in it when it's

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pressurized and you're doing a space

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walk and so what are some of the steps

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kind of going forward or

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what did you guys really first off what

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did you guys really focus on last week

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what was what were the major elements of

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last week's major element last week we

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were just trying to tell whether we

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could work together as a team because it

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was the first time we had two people in

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the pool at the same time with this new

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modified asus suit it's really the first

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time we've we've tested a new suit

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together two of them in the pool since

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the you know since we started the uh the

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space shuttle programs emu so it's been

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a long time so we just see could we work

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together um and then we continue to

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evaluate the new boots uh the the phase

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six gloves and then you know since i had

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the wrist bearings and dan didn't we

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could see what kind of differences that

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made and so uh that we worked all those

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things together and and did some typical

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tasks we would do on the space station

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as kind of uh you know basically just

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benchmarking what we know we can do in

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the emu and how hard is that to do it in

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the in the uh in the uh aces suit okay

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and what are what are some of the things

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you guys are going to be focusing on

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going forward or what are some of the

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you know some of the cooler tests you

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guys might have coming up well so we're

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gonna

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suits so we can we can really test out

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what the function of that arm bearings

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is i really like those arm bearings when

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they take them away i'm sure i'm going

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to say hey you know that wasn't a great

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idea so we'll test that and then we're

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going to start doing more representative

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tasks of an asteroid retrieval mission

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which is what we want to use this suit

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for potentially could you do some of the

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tasks we expect to do on an asteroid

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retrieval mission okay well rex walheim

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uh nasa astronaut and chief of their

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exploration branch again talking to us

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about the modified aces suit uh work

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being done here

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at the johnson space center uh rex

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thanks for coming on it's really cool

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good luck in the pool next week i hope

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dan doesn't run too many circles around