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imagine you

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are on the moon

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your job for the next eight hours will

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be exploring traversing up and down

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lunar hills sampling rocks and setting

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up equipment

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temperatures can reach a blistering 250

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degrees fahrenheit

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luckily you have a portable life support

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system a backpack that provides oxygen

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water power and for the excruciating

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temperatures a cooling system

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under the artemis program nasa and its

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partners are planning to return

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astronauts to the moon and the agency is

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testing new spacesuit technologies

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as a new age of exploration heats up

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engineers are looking to improve

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how to keep astronauts cool in space

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[Music]

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outside the international space station

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astronauts perform extra-vehicular

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activities

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evas

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also known as spacewalks

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during the apollo era spacewalks took

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place on the lunar surface and with the

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artemis program humankind will once

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again return to live and work in the

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harsh environment of the moon

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future plans call for spacewalks to last

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longer and be more demanding not just on

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the astronauts but also on the

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spacesuits and systems that protect them

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nasa has been working on advanced

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technologies needed for next generation

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spacesuits

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nasa's reference design the exploration

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extra vehicular mobility unit or the

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xemu features greater mobility

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visibility and flexibility this

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prototype is just the beginning

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to meet the needs of future exploration

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as part of the artemis program nasa will

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share its newest designs research and

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data with commercial industry whom nasa

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will partner with to build the next

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generation spacesuit it is an effort

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that will benefit from nasa's most

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recent studies and the agency's 50-plus

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years of spacewalk experience

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spacesuits are essentially a spacecraft

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made for one they have many important

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life preserving components

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but none is more complex than the system

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to regulate the temperature of the

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astronaut engineers call this cooling

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system the thermal control loop

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the thermal control loop is part of the

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portable life support system

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or the backpack that the astronaut wears

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when they do an eva the thermal control

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loop is designed to keep the astronauts

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cool when the astronauts are doing

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spacewalks they can be exposed to

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extreme temperature swings

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say up to 250 degrees fahrenheit

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the thermal control loop is part of a

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system that consists of a liquid cooling

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ventilation garment or lcbg that the

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astronauts wear

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under the spacesuit it consists of tubes

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that are filled with water that

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circulate from water pumps in the

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backpack to keep the astronauts cool

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during the gemini program engineers

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realized that astronauts not only needed

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protection from the temperatures of

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space but also from the heat generated

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inside the suit from their own bodies as

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they worked

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originally the suit designers thought

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that air flow over the astronauts body

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would keep temperatures regulated what

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they discovered was that air cooling in

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a spacesuit is insufficient to do that

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job

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during the apollo era it was decided

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running cool water through a garment

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that covers the body could help keep the

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astronauts from overheating

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the means of cooling the astronaut was

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now an essential life-sustaining element

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to the spacesuit and was here to stay

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the space suit currently in use on the

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space station developed in the 1970s

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also uses a water cooled garment

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circulating water is still the best way

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to cool an astronaut however

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improvements can be made on how to move

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that water through the system using new

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technologies and materials to test how

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to make the essential cooling system

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safer and more reliable than ever before

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the result of this research is surfy the

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spacesuit evaporation rejection flight

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experiment all the critical elements of

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a spacesuit cooling system in one box

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two surfy units have been built one to

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work here on earth in our gravity and

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another surfer unit meant to be tested

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in the absence of gravity

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onboard the international space station

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astronauts take advantage of the

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microgravity environment to perform a

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variety of science experiments and to

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test exploration technologies

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when engineers developed the spacesuits

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for the apollo and space shuttle eras

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nasa did not have a space station in

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operation

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today the station presents a perfect

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platform for engineers to use

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microgravity to put the surfy cooling

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system to the test

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in that experiment we will test

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a couple different versions of

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the water pump

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that will be used to circulate the water

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through the system we'll test

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temperature sensors we'll test pressure

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sensors integrate all those into one

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little package and test them for long

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duration to see how they'll perform over

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the expected life of a spacesuit surfy

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shows how the water will move through

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the system as if it were inside a

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spacesuit cooling the astronaut

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but the spacesuit cooling system needs

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to do more than just circulate water

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as the astronaut works their body

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generates heat which is transferred into

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the liquid cooling and ventilation

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garment a thermal control loop needs a

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way to remove the heat from the water

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that is circulating through the system

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that's where swimmy comes in spacesuit

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water membrane evaporator

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swimming consists of some porous hollow

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fiber membranes that are contained in a

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metal manifold when warm water flows

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through the pores membranes

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and then is exhausted into space the

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cool water continues through the porous

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fibers and continues to flow through the

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lcvg liquid ventilation garment to cool

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the astronaut

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with the means to run a cooling system

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and offload heat and gases the surfy

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unit runs for eight hours at a time the

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span of what a spacewalk might last in

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space or on the moon

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the tests are run again and again

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simulating the rigors of what a

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spacesuit thermal control loop might

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encounter during its life cycle

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astronauts take water samples from surfy

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for analysis

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just as a spacesuit might sit in storage

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for a time between spacewalks like

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during a trip to the moon or mars surfy

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is sometimes switched off this time of

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dormancy is when contaminants can grow

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in the system

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that's when the bugs microbes grow in

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the water system and those little guys

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grow and they reproduce and they can

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grow through the system they'll clog

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your filters and once your filters get

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clogged the water stops flowing when the

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water stops flowing the suit stops

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cooling contaminants in the water are

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such a problem for current spacesuits

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that astronauts set aside time for

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regular water maintenance chores every

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90 days the surfy tests hope to

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demonstrate that new technologies and

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materials will be far more robust in

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working through water contamination

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issues

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reducing the risk of the cooling loop

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failing we don't have to worry about

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water quality we want to be able we've

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joked among the team we want to be able

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to pour chicken soup into the

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exploration eu and it'll still run the

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way it's supposed to run even if there's

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microbes in there that the system

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doesn't care so we want the filters to

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catch the microbes and if the filters

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don't catch the microbes and they flow

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through the pumps the pumps don't even

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notice the microbes or the contamination

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or whatever's in the water they keep

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operating the way they're supposed to

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operate we want our crews to be spending

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their time exploring not running

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maintenance procedures on our spacesuits

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all the testing for surfing in space is

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duplicated on earth with the twin surfi

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running in one g

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earth's gravity by testing here and

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simultaneously testing in the

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microgravity of the space station

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engineers can infer how the cooling unit

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will run in the one-sixth gravity of the

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moon the one-third gravity of mars and

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all points in between

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the knowledge gained from building and

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testing the twin surface units is

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already paying off as work is underway

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building a full-size backpack for nasa's

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prototype exploration spacesuit how's it

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going to perform in microgravity well by

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sending surfy to space station we can

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actually test how it's going to perform

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in microgravity that in itself

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buys down the risk so now there's one

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less unknown that we have to worry about

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when we send our hardware off to do what

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it's supposed to do i am so excited that

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surfy swimmy is on orbit that we're

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working great our ground unit is working

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great

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surfy has made a difference we've had

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engineers scientists thermal analysis

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water experts it's been an exciting

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multi-discipline collaboration

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it's a collaboration that will inform

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spacesuit technologies for the moon and

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beyond

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a new design for a thermal control loop

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and its ability to help regulate

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temperatures for astronauts during

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exploration

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can benefit from the data gathered from

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surfy

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making it one cool little experiment