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it's a beautiful brisk spring morning

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here in north alabama when a young man's

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engineer turns to thoughts of roving

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across the surface of another world

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welcome to nasa's human exploration

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rover challenge

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you can hear them rattling towards us

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there you go you see them just bouncing

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over a variety of obstacles coming right

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by our broadcast center here

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absolutely and they may not be able to

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take this curve as fast as we have in

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years past

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calling a lunatic kirk but they still

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moving now the back stretch down where

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you see quite a few of the rockets that

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were designed uh kind of our heritage

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area with the rockets that were designed

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uh here in huntsville at the

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the marshall space flight center

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absolutely and leaving this part after

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they've gone through the first couple

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obstacles they'll roll around to the

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back end on the straight stretch

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hand turn

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and not even 20 seconds wait i'm sorry

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yes not even 45 seconds into the race

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now heading down in between our uh down

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our our heritage row here of our rockets

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from years past trying to get up enough

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speed before they make that hard right

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hand turn and heading up the martian

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let's see if that's going to slow them

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down just a little bit oh they weren't

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quite able to get fast enough to head

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over it in one fast bit but they know

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they can hit reverse and try it again

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chris absolutely i think they've learned

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from the previous team i heard two

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things one you could hear the crowd

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response uh everybody who's following

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along they're very excited to see them

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get over that first what we call the

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martian butte the first of our martian

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themed obstacle and you can tell they've

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backed up considerably far in order to

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get a better run and go

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that's tough

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not quite once again you see the

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they got that very long chain running

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from the back driver to the front and

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vice versa of course uh

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we're hoping that that's that could be

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we've seen uh chains

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break as well as sometimes just come off

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so they have to do some quick repairs

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there in the course they may back all

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the way up to their previous options

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that's a smart move once again this is

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this is not necessarily a penalty this

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is just the time

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uh

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it causes a time crunch coming up now as

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we're slowly approaching the two minute

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let's see if they're able to get enough

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and so we're they're just struggling

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trying to push their way up the hill

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see once again when you sacrifice these

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are all sacrifices you have to make for

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the for that's the sturdiness of the

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rover as it comes across the course is

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not having those tires and just being

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able to speed through it a four-wheel

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bicycle basically yes absolutely it's

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humid-powered

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the kids that you've seen there's uh

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basically what you consider the the gear

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and the the pedals that you would find

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on a normal typical bicycle but they've

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been

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added and fabricated and including

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different kinds of gear ratio so

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these teams are trying to figure out

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what's the best design and you're going

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to see lots of different designs and the

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ones we've seen so far this morning it's

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male female and they're both sitting

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facing the same direction

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we've got some rovers that will come

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where the student team rover drivers are

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back to back one face in the front one

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facing the back uh so it just depends on

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what they think is the best uh the best

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design and a lot of them are really

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funny i've seen them kind of a zero g

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style where the feet and legs are kind

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of up high right like you would if

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you're sitting in a cog chair

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perhaps allowing that but that also

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allows for the center of gravity to be

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lowered absolutely there's something to

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be said about center of gravity

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especially consider the steep incline on

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some of these obstacles as well as

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trying to build up enough speed momentum

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around these curves to tackle the

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obstacle at the end of that curve

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so they've stopped for a moment uh so

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far no penalty because it hasn't been a

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touch but our lead our front driver

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excuse me did take his feet off the

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now back

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on

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again this is a uh

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it's borders right on the idea of an

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athletic event uh it's difficult uh know

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myself

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i would enjoy doing this but uh there's

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and we're off and running

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in our racer that's team number nine

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from macau puerto rico one of several

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teams from puerto rico joining us here

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and so one thing i always found

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interesting as we see them come across

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the first obstacle underneath the space

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shuttle pathfinder exhibit is that they

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actually have a heat race at puerto rico

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they have a basic qualifying race

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there's a lot of teams in puerto rico

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like to get together and want to

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participate and so they

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any team can come here if they want to

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register and pay their own bill but

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puerto rico gets together with the

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university system and they have a

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competition for the top winners of that

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different heat will actually be funded

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and get to come here as we see rover

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team from puerto rico coming along this

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right here

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male female driver front back facing the

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same direction and that looks like a

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a

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did get stuck so

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they've both been working out all year

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getting ready for this last year doing

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cardio but this year they realized they

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needed strength so they've been lifting

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weights

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and they you can hear them yeah we're

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all excited about this

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i'm sorry

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and we've got our broadcast feed here so

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we've got uh zach correct yes joining us

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here in the broadcast booth for the

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middle tennessee state

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university team you guys brought two

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rubber teams this year as well this year

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is just one this is the fabrication of

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eight wheels is very time consuming so

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we decided

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to take four instead

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so who are some of the people you'd like

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to thank who've helped make this

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possible for you being here i definitely

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like to thank lane motor museum they

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help us out by generating to our

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funding the space grant some of us they

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support us we uh the space grant from

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nasa i also like to thank fast and all

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because they provide a lot of the

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fasteners for free and that helps us

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immensely because that's what a rover

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it's made of fasteners

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so what about your faculty what kind of

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dollar doctor fruitistan he helps

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he both motivate motivates us and he

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helps court funding i'm sorry it's hard

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to

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captain thomas kinney he was a principal

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designer for these wheels and of course

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the whole team kelly maynard she didn't

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know how to machine before this and she

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ended up being

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one of the best machiners in the program

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because of her involvement with the

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wheels they will be we'll be at the pitt

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area they'll be broadcasting that live

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at 10 a.m you can go online and kind of

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get a behind-the-scenes sneak peek of

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what's going on in all the pit area

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which is kind of like a game day pregame

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environment we got

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there are people out there with their

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tents and all their trailers out there

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and it's a it's really a great

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opportunity and a great environment so

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we're excited to get a chance to

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broadcast that

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uh 10 a.m on our nasa marshall facebook

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page that's the nasa marshall

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facebook page you can follow that watch

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that 10 a.m plus you can just follow us

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on our twitter account at rover

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challenge as we get ready to have our

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next team

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is getting ready to come up to the start

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finish line

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while we have the international team

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from germany college division on the

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course right now and as a teaser chris

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i know in years past we've gotten some

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of the engineers from nasa who helped

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the students in the pitt area to join us

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on camera and this is a chance

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for the viewers at home to see that that

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actual pit area

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i've been able to dive into that

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in that area

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in the pits

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and so it's a great insight into what

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happens as the teams prepare to go into

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the race and then when they encounter

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issues you saw the the puerto rican team

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carrying the front axle separate from

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the chassis uh on the way back so

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they're going to be one of the first

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customers of the re-fabrication

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group that's in the pits and

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nasa engineers that have that expertise

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in fabrication and metallurgy they'll be

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they'll be key in helping those teams

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get back on the course absolutely this

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is the prime example of why this is a

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real world working experience these kids

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i'm telling the pit area is all is full

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of all sorts of sounds of

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metal grinding and and being welded and

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it's uh it's definitely a

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a working environment down there and

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kids are in fact we've got the new

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trailer down there which really a lot of

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our volunteers are helping these kids