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good morning welcome to the mission

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control center here in houston we are

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working today on uh we're talking today

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rather with a principal investigator of

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one of the experiments the crew worked

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on earlier this week the body measures

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experiment one of the main things that

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we are trying to learn as the crew lives

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in space for these long periods of time

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is how that uh stay in space affects

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their body and the body measure

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experiment looks at exactly that so this

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is uh

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sudakur rajulu who's going to be telling

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us a little bit about that experiment

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thanks so much for joining us oh you're

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welcome

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so tell us first of all just explain

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kind of what the body measures

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experiment is right uh the body

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merchant's experiment is to

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understand uh

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when crew members spend the time in

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space

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how their body

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dimensions change

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like for instance the height

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you know the stature of the person

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and also

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circumference because there are fluid

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shape that happens that

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you know you can see the crew members

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face in space kind of like puffed up you

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know because of the fluid from

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feet to the to the head you know so

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there are changes in

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the paper that happens in space

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that could affect how they are wearing

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the suit for instance this is a

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spacesuit or it's a spacesuit yeah so

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when crew members go into space

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because of some changes that happen to

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their

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stature and things like that they need

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to be re resized in space

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so

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uh

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because of that

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uh

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there are

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things

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that do not

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remain the same as

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as they were measured

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on the ground so when they go into space

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you have to adjust for those things

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and that's what the reason for the

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testing okay so you see a number of

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different changes it sounds like you

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mentioned that you can even observe from

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the ground that their faces get maybe a

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little puffy right that's from the fluid

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shift you also i think said they get

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taller is that right they do get taller

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it varies from

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person to person but in general

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there is a growth in space it's because

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of the elongation of the spine

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um

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and are those changes permanent

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those changes remain so long they are in

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space but when they come back most of

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them revert back to the normal position

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okay so you just need to you can't

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really measure on the ground when they

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get back what it's like so you measure

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it in space in space so what is how does

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that work what does that look like

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uh what do you mean how does it look

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like what how did they actually go about

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measuring making those measurements in

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space well if you're on ground we have

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different devices to measure them like

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anthropometers and

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you know different devices that we have

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it takes time also to do that in space

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what we're doing is

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using what we call video analysis we

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take pictures of the crew members uh in

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specific postures

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and uh here's a uh it's an example like

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uh

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we identify the markers on the body and

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we place some reflective markers okay on

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the uh

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specific landmarks on the body we

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identify those things before they go

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into space

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and we place those markers and take uh

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you know when we take a picture

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uh using photogrammetric technique we

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can then identify the distance between

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two of those markers

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so for instance we put place one on top

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of your head

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and we know where you're standing on the

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floor

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so the distance between the head to the

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floor will give us the height okay same

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thing with the shoulder height you know

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we put markers on the shoulder okay a

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little little more complex than just

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marking it on the wall like you might do

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for a kid at home right i mean it's you

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can do that i mean crew members have

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done that but since we are concerned

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about sizing precisely the suit we need

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to have scientific measurement

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techniques and repeatability so that

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when we tell the

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sizing engineers how much you have to

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allow for it it'll be more precise

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okay

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so why is that important why exactly do

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we need to know precisely what these

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measurements are

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well um

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for instance um

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like i said the suits are sized

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uh before the crew members go into

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in space

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uh when we had the shuttle uh the crew

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members had their own suits

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and they would

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be they would have been adjusted to

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account for some changes

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unfortunately with the shuttle being

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retired we are now relying on the suits

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that are on the station

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and

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if you don't size them properly you may

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run into difficulties uh in getting into

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the suit or it may be uncomfortable for

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you in fact recently about six months

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ago we had a crew member who had just a

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little bit

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tight fit into the suit

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so

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it is necessary for us to help the

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sizing engineers

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to

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account for it and if it is variable

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from person to person then we can then

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inform the crew members how to size

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themselves in space we don't have the

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luxury of having the suits sent by the

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shuttle like we used to do before okay

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and um i guess it's really important for

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the space suits to fit well as they are

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absolutely yes because you know you

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don't want to be in a suit for

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eight to ten hours and having

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you know to deal with uh discomfort

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and that may you know distract you from

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doing the tasks or you may have to

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you know not have a successful

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successful mission

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and which is a very difficult thing to

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do you know when you are planning for

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important tasks and you're going to be

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out in the suit for eight hours or nine

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hours

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we need to make sure that it is as

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comfortable as possible for the crew

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members okay so um i guess that's uh

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even if they're not necessarily doing a

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spacewalk now they're still

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participating maybe in this experiment i

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guess they were doing taking some

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measurements yesterday for the

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experiment do you

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um when they are on on orbit taking the

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measurements you talked about putting

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the reflective

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um

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markers on and and taking the

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measurements is that is that the extent

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of it or is there more

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well what we want to do is that

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certain measurements uh like here's an

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example of

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the setup how we want the crew members

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to be measured

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uh there are

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certain things we need to we also want

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to capture

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in doing the skylab what we found was

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that

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as soon as you go into zero gravity

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there is this sudden increase in the

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height and there is a another phase

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where

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the height was still growing a little

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bit so it kind of like it took a while

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for it to plateau it out okay

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so we also want to measure

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uh the

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the durational change you know if

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is there a uh you know growth continuing

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throughout the mission or it you know

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kind of platters out so we have

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periodically measuring these

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measurements

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um not just the height but also

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circumference

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uh at the chest

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calf level and tile of the thigh

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circumference the reason for that is

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that we want to make sure

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if we want to tell the sizing engineer

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you need to make this adjustment is it

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something going to be remain constant

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throughout the mission because the crew

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members are going to be there on space

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on the space station for

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you know six months to you know three to

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six months so

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if it's changing

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we need to be able to account for it

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otherwise we can say you know it was a

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constant sizing delta that they can

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apply to it okay so we are measuring you

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know periodically okay well just one

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more question then we'll wrap it up um

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you know we always like to hear about it

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this sounds pretty specific to to

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spacefly but are there applications for

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us here on earth as well is there are

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there any benefits well right now i

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think it's more specifically geared

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towards suit sizing

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but

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one thing we notice is that we just

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finished one data collection one crew

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member had participated we haven't even

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finished the analysis yet but we're

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noticing that calf circumference changes

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a lot it actually decreases and that's

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mostly because of the muscle atrophy but

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it's still preliminary you know

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ultimately what we really want is

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clothing and suits are self-adjustable

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right

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and uh if we find that

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uh there are means to do that

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that may have impact also and then also

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we have better studies you know we have

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same similar situation that happens for

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group for the subjects undergrowth

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changes in the body dimensions so there

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may be some benefit there too yeah okay

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well great we look forward to hearing

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more about that thank you so much for

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coming and speaking with us again this

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was

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sue docker rajulu who is the principal