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I always really liked applied things. How am I gonna use this research that I'm doing?
My name is Gary Ruff and I get to start large fires on spacecraft.
Before coming to NASA I was a college professor. Some of the research that I did was in
microgravity combustion. A position opened up to light big fires in space and I had to come.
One of my newest hobbies is having a saltwater aquarium.
I'm not going to get a fire in a saltwater aquarium, but it is a self-contained environment.
In a ways, it's a lot like an environmental control and life support system on a spacecraft.
But one of the other things that you frequently do to
keep an aquarium clean is dilute the water -- add new water. You can't always be
adding new air on a spacecraft. You want to be able to recycle a lot more.
That really makes the problem a lot more difficult. It's fun being able to
continue doing research in your area that you know that you've really
spent a career doing and continuing to do that for NASA
in something where you know there's going to be an impact in the future.
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