>> Joan Sted: Thanks again we're back
in Building 220 I'm Joan Sted at Thomas Mission Operations test
and this time we're talking with Alvin Drew who is the commander
for today's run of the test.
[Background noise] Thanks so much for coming back.
I know we talked with you last time we were had these tests
going on back in May so.
. .
>> Alvin Drew: Yes.
>> Joan Sted: . . .this is a little different
than I think last time ya'll were using just basic what we
already know to deal with the time.
. .
>> Alvin Drew: Yes.
>> Joan Sted: . . .delay.
And this time you're trying out some new tools
and procedures, right?
>> Alvin Drew: Absolutely.
>> Joan Sted: Okay.
How's it going?
>> Alvin Drew: It's going well.
It's like you talked about before.
The tools we were using last time were the same 20th century
tools we've been using since the days of mercury.
So they're 50 years old.
It's like the walkie talkie model of talking where,
you know, you cue the mic and you say something and let go
of the mic and the person's cue's the mic
on the other end and they talk to you.
And they well if you are doing something fairly simple
and you're only a few hundred miles away from the earth,
but the distances we're simulating right now it doesn't
work as well.
So with this today we've got all our 21st century tools that some
of the people recognize as being just normal stuff we use
like texting and other things like that to see
if that helps us out any.
>> Joan Sted: You wouldn't think NASA needed any help getting
into the 21st century, but I guess so.
We have stuff that has worked for a while, but it's time
to move on to some new .
. .
>> Alvin Drew: We've got new challenges in front
of us and new things to do.
So the tools that worked well for the past 50 years why fool
with them and they're working fine.
These are things that we know that tools will not work
when we are long distance away from the [inaudible] speed
of light, you know, that may take you 20 minutes
to get an answer back.
And if that answer was can you say all that again,
well that gets to be very frustrating.
So it's nice to have things that written records
of what you wanted if you could send a text message
so they can just re-read the message.
>> Joan Sted: Well, how do you think that's going so far?
Do you like the choice?
>> Alvin Drew: I think it's going great.
It's a little bit strange because I'm used to lots
of chatter over the radios when things are going on
and we've spent the whole morning I think we talked
to them three times.
[Laughter] So we think we're mad at each other
or something and we're not.
[Laughter] It's just -- there's just a lot
of typing and chattering away.
So if you're a teenager
with a phone it would seem perfectly normal to you,
but to somebody like me who's just a few months away
from AARP card it's a little bit weird
to not hear any chatter over the radio lines.
>> Joan Sted: So how many --
are there runs in all the [inaudible] today
at three different time delays?
>> Alvin Drew: Yes.
>> Joan Sted: Five seconds .
. .
>> Alvin Drew: Five seconds .
. .
>> Joan Sted: . . . 50 seconds.
. .
>> Alvin Drew: . . . 50 seconds and 300 seconds,
which is five minutes.
>> Joan Sted: Right.
So which ones have you done so far?
>> Alvin Drew: So far we've done 50 seconds
and we'll look five minutes
and then we'll do another run actually with 50 seconds again.
We won't do the five second delay.
>> Joan Sted: What kind of things have you had
to do under those delays?
What kind of tasks and activities?
>> Alvin Drew: Basically I caught this old --
things that are broken I guess we're on our way home.
So we've got computers that are hard drives that are failing.
We've got inspections and we've got some dings on our spacecraft
from micro-meteoroid strikes.
We've got an exercise device that's got worn
out from I guess we've been doing too much exercise.
That's a good thing I take it.
>> Joan Sted: Good job.
>> Alvin Drew: So things we're just tidying things up
and getting ready for the trip back home.
>> Joan Sted: And is it hard to do it without being able
to talk instantly to the ground,
or do you think you're able to handle it?
>> Alvin Drew: As long as things run normally there's not a lot
of reason to talk granted it's just coordination.
It's letting them know we're starting this procedure
on this times and they want to know that and how things go
when you get done with it.
You know we found this particular
and we put this away over here.
We testing this thing, we got this piece of data back.
And so none of it's really urgent and there doesn't need
to be a whole lot of interaction.
We send them information.
They get it.
They acknowledge if they have any questions they bring it
back up.
So I haven't really noticed any big to do's.
I think when things get dynamic
when you know maybe something goes wrong,
which stuff will happen here in the next couple of runs.
That's when the adrenaline starts to pick up a bit
because there's time delays on both ends now.
>> Joan Sted: Right.
Okay. Well, so, you know, going through this now,
do you think this is going to get us ready
for when it is time to go to [inaudible]?
You know, we've got the Ryan
and the space launch system being built now.
So that's help get us in that direction, but are we going
to be ready once we get there?
>> Alvin Drew: I think so.
We're making big strides right now.
And what I'm seeing a lot of feedback from crew members is
that these are tools we can use right now working
on the National Space Station,
whereas the tools we have right now work fine,
these actually make our life better up there.
Having things like text so we don't have
to go could you please say again,
even though there's no time delay they can go look
at the message.
So why not?
That's not a big leap with these technologies.
There are things that work on the same computers that we
in the space station right now.
So we're actually looking at implementing some
of these things here and now.
Some of the displays we have
over [inaudible] look at our IPads.
This is how we interact with this particular model
of a space craft that wouldn't be a big deal to make that work
on board our space station.
So if you're looking at a procedure, you want to look
at a systems, you don't have to float over to a workstation,
look at it and then float back over to your worksite.
You can take everything with you and use it right then and there.
Well, now we've got IPads or Tablets available
on board the space station.
We can put the software on those particular Tablets
and have that capability.
So there are things that can enhance our lives
on the space station now and of course get us ready
for going further and further either way right
into out beyond the moon and even further
out in our planetary space in the near coming years.
>> Joan Sted: Getting easier to imagine then?
>> Alvin Drew: Yes, it is.
>> Joan Sted: Yeah.
>> Alvin Drew: Yes.
>> Joan Sted: All right.
Well, thank you so much for talking with us again.
We really appreciate.
It sounds like you've got a lot
of interesting stuff going on here.
>> Alvin Drew: Yes, looking forward to seeing more of it.