[inaudible conversations] the committee on space will come to order and without objection the chair is authorized tour declare a recess at any time. Welcome to todays hearing entitle the International Space station addressing operational challenges you have the written testimony biographies and truth and testimony disclosure for todays with this is part or recognize myself for five minutes for an opening statement. Good morning welcome to our hearing today and i want to thank our witnesses for taking time to appear before the committee. Since 2013 the program has experienced a number of challenges we have thank committed to identifying challenges to address them and reach our goal and Justin Lehigh commitment. At the iss have had water leaks third three times with one during a spacewalk. April 26 an unmanned russian vehicle damage stave reflector while docking with the. Host team per could generate 14, a false alarm of the ammonia leak caused the crew to retreat into the russian segmen
Competition for available crude time and heavy demand for Key Facilities to limit the amount and type of experiment that can come to iss the crouton is already allocated at 100 to redress the challenge now is dependent on commercial crew providers who promised the capabilities as planned. With these capabilities nasa can had a crew member to devote most of the time to research to double the research time. However many technical challenges than the ability to fund the program could delay the efforts. Finally even if they can navigate the challenges challenges, demonstrating a return on investment is difficult and scientific research. In the short term it is essential that the continued to make progress to achieve the goal of the increased role and we reported that nasa could do more to define and assess on progress and for example, by assigning a measurable targets to the annual performance the tricks. They concurred and agreed to take action and respondent in conclusion it will likely
Grant is funding a study to find ways to best treat the issue of obesity. And one clinic in iowa is helping out. Abc9 News Reporter Christina Gri hallva has more in rural communities, like akron, iowa, nearly 20percent of the population live at a higher risk of obesity and obesity related illness. A new grant is allowing the akron Mercy Medical clinic to study the issue to help find a solution. Partly its gonnas be coaching, partly it is being counseling. So its gonna be a little bit of everything put together. We call it a pragmatic study. Its going to be looking at the way things really are in your life. 40 patients from the clinic have been chosen based on certain criteria. For the next 36 months theyll be following a plan set up by two of the clinics nurses. Well give them kind of the basic structure for each patient, but then well work from there depending on the patients goals and what they want because this is basically their program that their formulating for themselves. Even t