Scientists and engineers at NASA are always tailoring their facilities based on missions’ needs. You can see how equipment has appeared and disappeared in this space at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, over the years. Goddard’s blue thermal vacuum chambers on the other hand have not gone anywhere. Scientists use these to determine how a spacecraft will endure the harsh conditions of space. Like the Space Environment Simulator featured last week, these smaller chambers’ immense vacuum pumps suck air from the chambers. Cryopumps then use freezing liquid nitrogen to condense the remaining gases, reducing air to a billionth of Earth’s normal atmospheric pressure. The chambers can also cool or heat the interior to simulate the extreme temperatures that instrumentation will survive the extremes in space. Clean rooms are another precaution taken when building spacecraft. Resembling a plastic greenhouse, these clean rooms have air filters that eliminate dust, dirt, germs and other contaminants. Additionally, scientists inside the clean rooms must wear white “bunny suits” to prevent specks of skin or sweat from damaging carefully-calibrated and sensitive instruments spacecraft use to gather science data. After a while in the clean room, the scientists’ blue gloves will turn greenish gray because the latex traps their shedding skin cells within their gloves. A smudge on the lens of a space telescope would be practically impossible to clean once the telescope is in orbit, so it is a necessary precaution. #TBT #ThrowbackThursday
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:49:55 +0000
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