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Options that they have. and none of them are easy. they are all risky. the one, of course, that has received the most attention, it seems to be maybe the only scenario that may work is the idea that boys would swim out. the divers spent days trying to prepare the environment for that scenario, where they have placedox gen tanks and ropes, in trying to figure out how they would be able to latch them to each boys and swim out together, buddy dive. another option that was introduced today is the one that mentioned on twitter the other day, the idea to put a tube into the tunnels and inflate it, u...

There. we talked about it last hour, very interesting here, the idea of using water displacement, basically pushing the water out so there's more air pockets so the kids can get out. it's an elon musk idea, right? >> it is. it looks like they're going to give this technology a try. effectively what they do, they put this canvas tunnel into the existing tunnel here and they full it with air. the idea is that the air would push the water out. there's compression, they have air locks and it could create a space where they could try to get the kids out or at the very least get supplies in. so it's...

And i had to evaporate all my tears before i could properly see. so it was a little bit disconcerting. but hopefully that won't happen to scott and chel today. >> i hope not either. what kind of precautions do they take before they embark on the spacewalk? >> more than you could believe, carol. they've trained for years and years. they've spent hundreds of hours under water at the johnson space center in houston training for it in a virtual reality lab with a helmet and gloves on, and then on board for the last few weeks, they've been going over these procedures. we've been preparing these spa...

The operation? what are the variables right now? >> well, chris, first, merry christmas to you and your family and the family at "new day." what they're doing right now is setting things up. they got out the air lock, both the astronauts are out there, making sure their tethers are good, getting in position to start their day's activities. the robot arm is being put in position and mike hopkins will get in there. they're start off the procedures. right now they're getting things set up at the very beginning. >> what makes it more difficult in space than if you were doing this in earth's atmosp...

Turn it back into a gas so it goes off into space. just as an extra precaution, inside the air lock they're taking a few extra minutes to stay at vacuum to make sure the last bit of ammonia that might have gotten on their suits gets out into space and not into the space station. >> all right. so overall impact, keeping equipment cool, keeping the iss intact, and also its impact of this mission and continuing our space program for where it is at this point. just to kind of bring things back at the end of the year as we entered 2014 and saw so many cuts made and changes to these space walks and ...