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>> For generations we have dreamed about a place
to live and work in space.
A space station.
And right now 260 miles above us that dream is reality.
We dreamed that life up there would benefit life down here.
That dream has come true.
Can research onboard the space station lead
to cleaner drinking water on earth?
Can it help farmers produce better crops?
Can it inspire a generation of students?
Can it even save a life?
The answer to these questions is yes.
It already has.
As the work aboard the International Space Station
begins to reach its potential, the benefits
to humanity are evident.
These are just a few of the stories from people
who have realized those benefits, in their own words.
[ Music ]
>> Is that 2?
Can you say two?
>> I found a big lump in the side of my face and I kept going
to doctor after doctor.
And I was in so much pain
at that time I was like dying in bed.
It hurt so bad.
I've never been in so much pain.
I went for my first MRI and then it showed up with
like hundreds of tumors all over.
And then they sent me to -- Not Doctor Sutherland,
but someone who works in his office,
and he thought it was neurofibromatosis which I have.
>> We didn't even realize what that was.
We'd always heard it called the elephant man disease.
There's different types of neurofibromatosis.
One of them the tumors go on the outside of your skin.
The other one the tumors grow on the inside,
and hers grow on the inside.
>> A long time ago when we were thinking
about this we approached MacDonald,
Dettwiler and Associates.
It's a company that happens to be located in Canada
that built robots for space.
They built what Canadians call a [inaudible]
and then they constructed the special purpose textures
manipulator for the International Space Station.
And the idea was if they could build
such complex robots perhaps in cooperation
with medicine we could build a robot
that could operate inside an MRI machine.
>> We did not realize that it was built
of the same material as the space arm.
And we're quite amazed that's what he had made it out of.
>> But it's the multidexterity of the robot
and that robot could perform tasks
that made us become increasingly confident
that we could overcome the challenges related
to building a robot that could operate inside an MRI machine
with the precision, the accuracy,
and the dexterity of a neurosurgeon.
It just so happened that the first individual was a young
woman and the young woman harbored a fairly complex tumor
underneath the front part of her brain.
A machine like NeuroArm can manipulate tools
at an accuracy of 50 microns.
That is overwhelmingly superior
to what the best surgeon might be able to do.
>> I think it's fabulous and to me it's actually mind boggling
that someone could take that material and put it
into a life saving device that can help millions of people.
>> I honestly think that right now I'd be bed ridden.
I would not be able to get out of bed
if it were not for my doctors.
My parents would be taking care of my kids right now.
I guess like I'm glad that it hopefully helped people
who have my disease.
And I hope that it helps people who need surgery in the future.
If they're ever propositioned with a chance in the future
to have something done like this, I hope they take it.
[ Music ]
>> We're in the town of Tres Picos.
This is a water purifier that uses technology developed
by NASA and makes free purified available to all
of the people of the community.
The technology was developed by NASA
for the International Space Station.
In this community the water comes from the tower,
but in other communities where we are working
on [inaudible] it comes from the wells, from rivers,
from streams, from springs.
The water can come
from practically any source that you can imagine.
People who drink contaminated water alter their health.
Their children's development is diminished.
>> My name is Raquel Perez Perez [assumed spelling],
and I am the campus assistant of this school.
There were lots of children with parasites
and stomach bugs before the purified water came.
Now the kids are healthier
because they now drink purified water from the plant.
The energy that is being used is solar, and the children come
to recess with their cups and they get the water themselves.
They are happy now and they want to come
and drink water all the time.
>> When you get involved with a plant of this kind
that gives people access to pure water for human consumption,
that is going to prevent people from getting sick,
what you're really doing is improving people's health,
but also you're improving the economy for these people.
>> If we could put one of these plants in every community
and have people use it you would have resolved one
of the most important sources of health problems.
At least in the rural areas of Mexico.
That's the truth.
If it is well used, you can change the lives
of an entire community.
It gives you children that learn more.
It gives you parents who spend less money on medicine.
It changes the future.
[ Music ]
>> Our farm is called AWG Farms.
It started back in 1975.
It's a family run farm.
I have two brothers now, and my son [inaudible] operation.
This will be the third generation farm
in this particular area.
The main crop is sugar beets.
Then we have spring wheat.
Sunflowers.
Soy beans.
Corn. And once in a while we'll raise some edible beans.
[ Music ]
>> Remote sensing is a way to look
at our crops during the growing season to be able to determine
if we need to do any monitoring of diseases and
or fertility differences.
We have an organization in Grand Forks, North Dakota called UMAC.
Well, that organization put a camera
on the space station called Issac.
Well, the biggest problem with satellite imagery is the fact
that [inaudible] we get every 16 days.
And on that 16th day in this region if we have cloud cover
that image is virtually useless for us.
So then we have to wait another 16 days.
The biggest thing with Issac, we would get it much more often.
When we wanted to get that particular image, Issac gave it
to us when we wanted it versus a more rotational type satellite.
They were able to get imagery to us with a couple bands of light,
more necessary ones we needed which is near infrared and red.
Near infrared band is something to do with biomass,
how the crop is growing.
More biomass, you get more [inaudible] potential.
We're able to obtain a piece of software that's written
by a local programmer of this region that allows us
to take these images and manipulate them into zones
within the field itself.
And by doing that we can see different patterns in the field,
and within those patterns we can manage the field differently
based off of biomass or [inaudible] field itself.
It's just a tool that we can use as a reference to be able
to make better decisions.
And by doing that our farm is more profitable.
And that, to me, is very important.
[ Music ]
>> I grew up out in the country in Indiana.
Corn and soy beans were the main crops.
I had always been interested in technology and in science.
Being out in the rural setting there wasn't a whole lot
of support for this.
Space Jam is an annual weekend boy scout event
and we do all kinds of technology based things.
We have about 1,000 people that come every year.
This is our seventh year of doing it.
And it's a blast every year.
The contact with the International Space Station was
one of the driving forces that helped to create Space Jam.
In fact, the first Space Jam was really basically only
about the contact.
It was a dream of the ham operator to say, "Hey, let's --
I want to talk to astronauts on the space station.
How cool could that be?"
That's the top of the game.
Each year we call up to the International Space Station
and we give these young kids the opportunity
to ask questions to the astronaut.
>> Is it true that it will take over a year
to get to Mars and back?
Over.
>> It absolutely is true.
>> The first time
that I remember really having this real impression was I think
the third year we did this.
I was in charge of actually calling up the space station
and establishing the contact.
We were out in the middle of the night in a field and I said,
"Anyone SS, Anyone SS, this is WB9SA calling
for a scheduled contact.
Do you copy?
Over." And I sent it again.
And then all of a sudden real crisp comes back, "WB9SA,
this is the International Space Station.
How are you doing tonight?"
It's amazing.
I graduated as valedictorian and I was lucky enough
to be admitted to Princeton with a complete scholarship.
And I then moved to San Francisco
where I'm a software engineer.
So I went from living on a farm to living downtown
in San Francisco writing software for people.
It was a really amazing experience to do all that.
[ Music ]
>> [Inaudible] is a large state.
Our territory is about the size of France and we consist
of 853 units and municipalities.
There are large distances between our communities
and many very isolated rural communities.
We are using new technology that impacts the quality
of prenatal care the diagnostic capacity
of the primary care doctor
in the situations involving distant, isolated communities.
[ Music ]
Providing medical care for people in remote locations
like these rural communities
or the International Space Station can be difficult
because trained medical personnel are not
always available.
NASA research teams developed techniques
that enabled astronauts aboard the space station
with minimal training to operate an ultrasound device using
simple printed guides.
The ultrasound images are transmitted in real time
to a doctor back on Earth who can make medical decisions
without actually being aboard the station.
These same techniques have been adapted for use
with portable ultrasound devices in communities
where expert medical care is not always available.
[ Music ]
>> My name is [inaudible].
I'm a doctor in the town of Munga.
>> In Munga people live with a particularity
and that is isolation.
We have a geographical barrier that is the [inaudible] river
which is both a blessing for the region, but it also isolates us.
We live in a region where financial resources are few.
People do not have a lot of work, but they are honest,
good people who do not have much opportunity.
So there are many needy people who need these resources
and rely only on this institution
to provide assistance.
This is a technology that helps us solve many problems.
[ Music ]
There was a case of a patient who came to the hospital
with severe respiratory failure
and the people realized she would die
in just 20 to 30 minutes.
We ran. We talked with Doctor [inaudible] who was training us
to use the ultrasound.
He came and applied the ultrasound
and discovered large amounts of fluid
around her lungs and heart.
We performed a procedure and drained a lot of fluids.
In 20 minutes, 10 minutes,
the woman immediately experienced an improvement.
And in half an hour was already walking.
It was like a miracle.
Arise and walk.
She was dying in front of us
without people knowing what was happening.
This ultrasound was instrumental
in saving the life of that patient.
[ Music ]
>> We've only begun to see the International Space Station's
benefits to humanity.
These are just a few of the ways that the science
and research conducted aboard the ISS is improving
lives today.
There are countless more benefits to come.
Sometimes in ways that we have never predicted.
Every day hundreds of scientists around the world are working
with the crews on board the International Space Station
to perform life changing research.
Every day they use the weightless environment of space
to conduct experiments in ways
that can't be done here on Earth.
And every day those experiments improve life
for people all over the world.
This will be the legacy
of the International Space Station's benefits for humanity.
[ Music ]