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a lot of work's been going on on board

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the international space station to

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return one of the emu's the extra

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vehicular mobility units uh the u.s

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spacesuits back to service i'm scott

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kelly back inside the airlocks today but

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he's been in there quite a bit over the

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last week and today we're going to learn

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a little bit more about what's been

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going on joining me here in mission

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control houston today one of our eva

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experts alex canelecos alex you're kind

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of a regular on this show nowadays we

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always bring in we were talking about

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these spacesuits and uh it's really

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great to have you here with us now to

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give us a little bit more insight into

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what's been going on well good morning

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dan glad to be here so first i mean just

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set it up for us what's been going on

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because we've heard this is some of the

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most invasive some of the most complex

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repair work you guys have ever had to do

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on these spacesuits what's been

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happening right so

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what we've been dealing with is a

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failure of one of our fan pump

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separators and this is what i'm holding

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here today it's a it's a 3d rapid

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prototype of our fian pump water

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separator and we've had several issues

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on orbit with with the fan pump

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separators and recently well in february

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we actually had another failure and we

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decided that we would remove the fan

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pump separator from emu 3011.

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this suit was scheduled to come home uh

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this summer on uh spacex and um

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we decided we'll bring the water

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separator and the fan pump uh home early

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and just leave that suit with an open

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cavity well unfortunately our resupply

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our new spacesuit that was also supposed

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to launch on spacex did not make it and

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um instead of

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bringing the old 3011 home we had to put

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a new fan pump separator in installed

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into this open cavity

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and get it back to service get the emu

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back to service and so

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in order to do that like you mentioned

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it's very invasive we're opening

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cavities that were never meant to be

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open during uh on orbit phases so on the

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ground of course when the spacesuit gets

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home the engineers do a lot of servicing

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on the on the different pieces um

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there's very small screws small shims

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that they'll take apart and um

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it was never designed to do that on

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orbit and the reason that this is is

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really

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critical that we do it right is these

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small pieces could really damage the

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suit especially when we go out eba it's

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something that we don't want to have

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floating around inside the spacesuit

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so that's part of it another part of it

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is once we get the fan pump separator

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installed there's a lot of water

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maintenance that has to happen our suit

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is very sensitive to water impurities

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and so we have to basically scrub the

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water that's going through the suit we

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also have to add iodine to help combat

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any of the organic

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components inside the suit and that's

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what we've been doing the last week so

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scott and chell have both been working

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on the suit and they've been installing

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the fan pump separator we also did a

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couple

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more maintenance activities such as a

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gas trap removal and replace and a water

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line vent tube so several components we

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replaced on the spacesuit and then we

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got into our water maintenance so last

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week we did a water

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dump and fill where we dumped our

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old water and filled it with new water

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and then we started this week with

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scrubbing the water and today we're

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doing a structural integrity test to

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make sure that the fan pump separator

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was installed correctly and that we're

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not going to have any leakage when we go

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outside the next time okay and you kind

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of touched on it but you know why is it

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important to to do these

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upgrades to make sure these suits are

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ready to go even though i mean we're not

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doing an eva tomorrow why is it

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important to have this thing you know

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ready for prime time ready to go right

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so we the the design of the evas is that

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we'd always have four spacesuits ready

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to go at all times and the reason for

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that is that we never know when when one

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spacesuit's not going to necessarily

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check out correctly we want to give our

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crew members the best suits to go out

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the door with you know spacesuit is like

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his own spacecraft once it's

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disconnected from umbilical and goes out

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during an eva uh it it's on its own it's

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it's life support everything is there

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for the crew members we want to make

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sure we're giving the best spacesuits

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for our crew members and in addition to

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that the spacesuits are sized um

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differently so

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the hard upper torso there's three

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different sizes and so they're connected

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to the life support and so those are

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have different sizes and so in order to

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give us the best complement of

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spacesuits with the crew members that we

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have on board we have different sized

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huts and and to

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basically strategically match what

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spacewalks could happen um that's that's

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how we size our spacesuits there are

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like you mentioned there are no

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scheduled evs in the near future there

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are some talks about some evas happening

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in late october or early november time

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frame

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but we can always have the need to go

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out the door if we have a major failure

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of space station where we have to go and

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replace a critical component that's why

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we have to be ready with our spacesuits

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okay and so you you said so there's once

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this one's back online there's going to

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be four suits and then aside from the

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suits you guys have spares and other

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things like that on board too like you

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had a spare fan pump ready to go you

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know what's what's the status applies

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for all that that's correct so we we do

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have several uh spares of the critical

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components of our life support in

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addition we have lots of spares of our

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um what we call the soft goods the more

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the sizing

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portions and that allows us to adapt to

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the different crew members we're we're

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fine as far as spares are considered on

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orbit right now okay and one thing you

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had touched on earlier i thought it was

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interesting was

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these suits weren't designed to

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necessarily be repaired like this so i

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mean what this has to be a really

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difficult task you know take something

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and i assume you do a lot of work here

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on down on the ground first but to

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figure out how to fix something that was

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never meant to be fixed in this fashion

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that's correct so we work hand in hand

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with the

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ground engineers to develop procedures

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for the crew members to repair the

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spacesuit and do this invasive removal

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and replacement of critical components

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so you're right that we have to design

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new procedures we also work with the

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crew on on just training them right

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these are these are components that are

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loose once you release the screw it's

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it's free um so we have to be prepared

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for that we use a lot of kapton tape and

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and we even have a vacuum cleaner with a

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netting over it ready to capture

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anything that comes comes loose that the

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crew members are unable to grab and and

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that's really important and in addition

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um some of the the things that you don't

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think about on on the ground is that you

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have to have uh ways to restrain your

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body when you're up there so the suit in

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order to install this fan pump separator

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it can't be structurally um

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attached so that it's completely rigid

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we actually have to allow it to to kind

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of move in order to gain access to this

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area and so that can be really difficult

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for the crew members because they're

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they're not restrained um

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as far as as normally being restrained

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like you're you have two feet on the

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ground so we have to you know give them

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advice of all right here's a good hand

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hold here and and things like that while

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they use the tools so we're having to

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repair something that wasn't meant to be

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repaired in an environment that we can't

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test and then i mean it sounds tough so

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i mean we're always looking forward

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we're always looking forward what are

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some of the things you know we've been

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using this suit for decades now what are

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some of the things that we're learning

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from having to do this kind of stuff on

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space station that we're hopefully going

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to be able to apply to suits you know

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when we're heading off to mars yeah

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that's a great point you know the

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spacesuits in big picture people think

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of spacesuits is this is how you're

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using this the space station as far as

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maintaining it you know the spacesuits

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are allow us to get basically into our

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uh

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mobility to go outside the door and

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repair things and and make sure that

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we're keeping our space station

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up and running but in addition we are

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using the spacesuits as kind of an

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experiment in themselves when we go to

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different locations or or to even

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improve on the next spacesuit so we are

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learning a lot of things just doing the

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removal and replacement we're learning

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all right we need to design our next

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spacesuit so that we can gain access to

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critical components easier we need to

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make sure that the fasteners and the

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bolts that are installed are captive so

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that when you release them they're not

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going to be floating or flying away

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right so there's there's a lot of those

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things in addition where we're learning

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um design because of what caused the

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failure we're learning how to design you

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know new components you know so that

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they're more resistance to water

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impurities and they're more resistant to

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uh corrosion things like that okay well

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again a lot of really invasive but a lot

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of really important work taking place in

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those spacesuits over the last week or

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so on board space station alex canelecos

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our local resident eva expert giving us