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as a laboratory in space ISS provides a

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place to investigate how things work

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when there's no gravity and necessary

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step on the road to humankind's future

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exploration of space beyond low-earth

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orbit the capillary flow experiment is a

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physical science experiment that's been

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underway onboard the station for a few

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years now since expedition 9 this

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morning we're going to learn about that

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work joining me now from Portland State

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University in Portland Oregon is Andrew

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Wallman a research assistant on the

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capillary flow experiment team good

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morning - good morning Rico glad to talk

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with you we're happy to have you here so

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the name of the experiment indicates

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you're looking at capillary flow what is

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capillary flow or the capillary force

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capillary flow is refer to fluid flow

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that's powered by a capillary pressure

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and that pressure comes from three

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different things first is surface

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tension which is the fluid property that

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wants to keep the fluid together second

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is the wedding condition which is best

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described or illustrated by dropping

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raindrop on a windshield and watching it

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beat up or putting some oil in a hot pan

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and watching it spread out and the third

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thing is the shape or the geometry of

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the container itself so those three

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things can create a pressure in the

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fluid that spontaneously pump it without

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a moving part can you explain to me in

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the context of future space exploration

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why is it important to know how these

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fluids flow in the absence of gravity

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and how those flows can be controlled in

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the absence of gravity so capillary

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flows are normally dominated here on

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earth by gravity so we don't notice them

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but when you go up into orbit these

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flows are all over the place and we like

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to study them for example bubbles in

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your soda on earth will rise to the top

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and come out about bubbles in space stay

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suspended in the fluid and they cause

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problems but some of the equipment also

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we would like to move fluids around with

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out

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a pump or a moving moving part and so we

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can do that by changing the geometry of

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the piping okay and so what are the

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benefits of this information that we are

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getting from this study well the largest

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benefit that we're getting is high

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reliability so most of the fluid

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management systems onboard station today

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have been designed without knowledge of

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how capillary forces behave in orbit and

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so there's problems and so we want to

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mitigate these problems by putting into

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play some of the things that we've

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learned can't you use computers to

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simulate how these fluids behave in

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space yeah we can use computers to

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simulate the flows but they're just that

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the simulations are models to help

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verify our simulations and our models we

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need to have actual experiments and view

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view what's actually happening so that

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we get a higher fidelity solution okay

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well I know the ISS and the microgravity

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environment is very essential to not

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only this experiment but many

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experiments and and so it is a perfect

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place to conduct us this type of

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experiment I know the experiment is

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investigating fluid flows within like

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containers of different shapes can you

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tell me about some of the different

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tests that you use to gather the data on

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how the liquids are behaving in

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weightlessness so depending on the test

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cell we have 15 different test cells up

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there right now and each one is a unique

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shape for a solution to a math problem

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and the astronaut will pump the fluid

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into the test chamber and we'll watch

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the fluid migrate from one end of the

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chamber to the next all on its own or we

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can drain the container and watch how

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the draining process is affected by the

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shape of the container we also can

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produce some bubbles on purpose and put

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those bubbly froth inside the test

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chamber and then we can study how we can

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separate the bubbles from the liquid so

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how do the efforts

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drops on the station how are they

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participating in this capillary flow

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experiment what are they doing how the

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astronauts are essential they are our

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lab partners up in orbit so the

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astronaut actually is the individual

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that's turning the knobs opening the

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valves pushing the plungers it's very

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interactive and I saw here on the ground

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are communicating with the astronaut in

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a control center talking to them telling

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them okay we'd like to open valve one

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see what happens so in addition to just

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following the crew procedures the

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astronauts also have a unique

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perspective and so they're able to tell

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us things that are happening that we may

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not necessarily be able to see from our

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downlinked video I know that as I

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mentioned before the this experiment the

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capillary flow experiment has been

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gathering data for a few years now as I

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mentioned earlier since expedition 9 can

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you tell us what you learned so far and

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and then what's the next step in this

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process yeah we've learned quite a bit

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and most of it is pretty boring it's all

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math most of it is math but that's

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important for design tools for engineers

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here on earth to better improve their

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designs for future spaceflight

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as a result of the CFE experiments we've

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been able to publish more than 20 papers

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we have six terrestrial applications

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come out of it we've had three patents

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including an astronaut coffee cup which

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we are hoping to put onboard station on

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SpaceX six

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it's even got a handle and as you

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mentioned some of the results are

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mapping and I would just say I wouldn't

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qualify it as boring a necessarily to to

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a lot of folks and including yourself it

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seems that you really seem to enjoy the

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work that you're doing oh yeah

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absolutely yeah that is super exciting

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for our group we really get get off on

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it it's it's super exciting that's great

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well I really appreciate your being with

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taking the time to talk with me today

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about that experiment and best of luck