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the station's robotic crew member

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robonaut's getting some upgrades today

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here to tell us more about what's taking

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place where we've come from and where

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we're going with the first humanoid

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robot in space uh dr ron diffler the

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principal investigator and the project

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manager for robonaut 2. ron first off

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thanks so much for joining me today and

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if you could set the stage a little bit

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so robonaut's been on board for a few

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years what what's the work that's been

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going on what have you guys been doing

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with with it on board it's my pleasure

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to be here today dan um since we've had

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the robot on space station

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after we completed our checkouts the

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first thing we did was we said hello to

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the world using american sign language

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moved on for some

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crew interaction shaking hands with

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commander dan bolden on dan

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burbank at the time

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since then we've been using the task

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board and trying out many of the

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different things that we previously

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tested on the ground working with knobs

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and switches buttons

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various other interfaces

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most recently we've moved on to working

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with tools and soft goods soft because

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being very important especially

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when the robot's ultimate goal is to

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work um eva working with soft goods or

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things you find throughout the space

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station those soft goods things like

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space blankets etc etc

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um our most recent activity was working

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with tele operation that is one of the

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astronauts tom marshburn put on a

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collection of virtual reality gear and

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controlled the robot inside the station

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simulating it as if we were outside and

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he caught our first free-floating object

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which is very exciting to us

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so kind of like the world's coolest

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video game taking place in space right

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now absolutely so and

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obviously robonaut

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created to be kind of a another set of

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helping hands to the astronauts on board

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the station and

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it needs more than just hands and needs

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some legs too so you guys have been

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developing these climbing legs for the

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robot absolutely um you can only do so

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much if you're fixed on a stanchion

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which is what we've been on for the last

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couple of years with the addition of

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legs we'll be able to go mobile matter

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of fact here you can see in the video

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this is our ground unit for robonaut

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actually our certification ground unit

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and there it is practicing climbing and

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in this case we took a truss system put

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it on our air bearing floor which is

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kind of like an air hockey table except

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in reverse the um the whatever is

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floating on top of it's emitting a thin

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layer of air so it can float

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we are using our grippers to then move

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that back and forth simulating as if the

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actual robot works climbing through the

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station and we've had very good results

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with that as you can even see during

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this video so they definitely don't look

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like traditional legs so while the upper

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body does have a lot of resemblance to a

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human because we do a lot of human-like

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motions with the upper body performing

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human-like tasks well in space you don't

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use your human legs the way you would

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use them on the ground that's right so

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we were not as it um

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we were not we didn't adhere to the

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human form when it didn't make any sense

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in the case of space you want legs that

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are going to give you more of a climbing

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capability than a walking capability so

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they're longer legs with more

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degrees of freedom greater flexibility

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for us to be able to reach from one hand

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rail to another and over maybe a little

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bit larger distances than you might

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normally expect okay now the legs have

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been up there for a couple of months now

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but we can't just throw them on we have

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to get robonaut ready first so what are

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some of the upgrades that have been

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taking place and what are some of the

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upgrades that are taking place this week

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so um a few weeks ago we finished the

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upgrades to the torso

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when robotic was originally built we did

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not have legs in mind

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so we had to go inside and increase and

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modify the infrastructure to support

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lake support all the wiring we also

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replaced our computer system because now

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we have more joints to control so we

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need more computer power

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we made all those changes and actually

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here you can also see an additional

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change we made on the robot which was we

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upgraded the helmet we learned on the

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ground that there were ways to improve

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our vision system by making

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modifications to the helmet so we

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included that as part of the upgrades to

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increase our overall capability doing a

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little brain surgery that's right

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there's astronaut steve swanson making

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modifications to the helmet

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so um we upgraded the body

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put all the all the latch all the hooks

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we needed so that when we attach the

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legs we can connect everything together

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here you see the legs they were sent up

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folded up and they actually have

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handrails our protocol on space station

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is that one leg must always be engaged

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no free floating robots on inside the

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space station so you see two handrails

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that will be used in part of the

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assembly process so we will on

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astronaut steve swanson will unfold the

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legs

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and then remove the up the body from its

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stanchion and attach those to the top of

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the legs basically put the bottom half

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and the top half together to give us a

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full-size robot inside the space station

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okay

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and i think we have some more images uh

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so you mentioned it's been on a

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stanchion a lot and i think we have

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another picture um so what so what are

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we looking at right here that's the

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interface

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at the top of the legs that will mate

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with a matching interface that we

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recently installed with the torso

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upgrades and the two can be put together

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and there you can actually see some

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guide pins there and when it's all put

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together it'll look just like that

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certification robot we have on the

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ground and be able to start moving

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between handrail to hand rail which is

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one of the ways we'll move on the inside

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of the space station and it won't have

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to worry about those straps either

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because it's right you don't need the

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straps in space since you'll be able to

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uh there'll be no gravity and you'll be

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essentially weightless so when are you

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guys expecting what are you hoping to

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get the legs attached uh currently we're

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doing some preparation work both today

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and tomorrow our goal is to attach the

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legs on thursday and then button

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everything up on friday and then we'll

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do what we call a power soap we just

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turn on electronics and make sure

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everything is behaving the way we expect

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it to yep

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and then

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once that's out of the way

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first steps one

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well there'll be a couple of more

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stages between now and first steps we

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have to be sure that

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all these things been put together are

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checked out properly so we'll have more

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or less the equivalent of stretching

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over the next two activities we have on

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space station and then in the november

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december time frame we will take our

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first step and go from one of our

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handrails that we're currently mounted

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to to a next to the next handrail and

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then just to close us out big picture

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once robonaut's mobile what what are you

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guys really hoping that it's going to be

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able to accomplish well we have put the

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robot in the best laboratory anywhere

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for preparing ourselves for eventual eva

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activities space walking space climbing

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type of activities so we're going to use

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the space station as a laboratory for

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climbing and learn all about

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climbing inside the space station where

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we have the advantage as we're learning

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things if some issues come up the crew's

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there to help us and as opposed to being

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on the outside of station where if

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you're learning things there's there are

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a lot more consequences to what's going

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on so that'll be the great laboratory

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for us to develop our climbing

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capabilities so that when we have a

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robot on the outside space station we're

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well prepared

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all right well exciting time for

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robonaut on board the station getting

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ready to get those legs on and not too

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distant future takes those first steps

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really exciting stuff dr ron diffler

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again project manager for robonaut

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thanks so much for joining me today here

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inside the control room giving us an