Take a NASA Tour with Kelli and Derek: Part 2: Cryo Vacuum/Space Blankets!

Derek and Kelli at the Cryo-Vacuum Chamber

Continuing on from yesterday's blog - we're taking a tour with Kelli and Derek as they walk behind the scenes at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The next stop was a giant cryogenic vacuum chamber.

STOP 3: GIANT VACUUM CHAMBER
Several critical items related to NASA's next-generation James Webb Space Telescope are being tested in the giant thermal vacuum test chamber. NASA's Space Environment Simulator (SES) is a big vacuum chamber where scientists and engineers cryo-test satellite instruments by lowering the temperature inside to extremes like 42 Kelvin (-384.1 Fahrenheit or -231.1 Celsius) and below to ensure that they can withstand the frigid temperatures of space.

HOW DOES IT WORK? It removes all of the air molecules in the chamber, creating a vacuum. Not only does it test if instruments will work in the extreme cold of space, but it can also heat up! Instruments, like a new car, give off a smell. That smell is called "outgassing." When something gives off gas or a smell, it can damage sensitive mirrors or parts of a satellite, so the vacuum chamber bakes instruments at high temperatures to remove the smell of them.

It's Huge! The part of the chamber that sticks up from the floor we were on is just 1/3rd of the chamber. The rest of it is below ground!

Thermal space blanket from a shuttle

STOP 4: MAKING SPACE BLANKETS
   A simple NASA technology that protected Apollo and Skylab is still coming to the rescue in space and on Earth. We stopped by the thermal blanket shop at NASA Goddard, where people who worked in the New York garment industry work for NASA, cutting out, sewing and fitting thermal blankets around satellites and spacecraft!

Standing in front of a shuttle thermal blanket

    WHAT IS A THERMAL BLANKET?    The silvery insulation is a heavyweight on benefits and a flyweight on mass in order not to weigh down spacecrafts while protecting them. The material is made of a strong, plastic, vacuum-metallized film with an efficient, infrared-reflective coating of aluminum applied as a vapor.
   The same properties that are critical in space have proved to be life-saving on Earth. NASA's insulation technology has been widely used to create slim thermal blankets, NASA has used the same thin, shining insulation material on virtually all manned and unmanned missions.
    Today many marathons use "space blankets" to ward off the post-race chill. The silver-backed crowds of runners have become a well-known symbol of having finished a race. 

 

There was a lot more to the tour, but these were just some of the highlights!  If you want to know more about what NASA Goddard does, go to: www.nasa.gov/goddard ! 

Stopping at the "Earth Lights at Night Display!

Take a NASA Tour with Kelli and Derek: Part 1: Satellite Controls/Clean Room

Kelli and Derek check out the Sun at different wavelenghts

Earlier this month, my niece Kelli and her husband Derek came to NASA for a tour of some incredible things. So, come along as we follow them on their tour (that I gave them). You'll learn some really amazing facts!

STOP 1: Mission Control Centers - It's not a surprise that NASA has a lot of Earth and space observing satellites and each one of them is managed by a team of scientists and engineers in control rooms for each mission.

Our first stop was at mission control for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory -
 The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) takes a closer look at the Sun, the source of all Space Weather. Space Weather affects not only our lives here on Earth, but the Earth itself, and everything outside its atmosphere (astronauts and satellites out in space and even the other planets). SDO is unlike any other satellite. It will be collecting huge amounts of data everyday. In fact SDO will produce enough data to fill a single CD every 36 seconds...
  WANT TO SEE WHAT THE SUN LOOKS LIKE NOW? Click here! 
  

Standing in front of the world's largest clean room

 STOP 2: The Largest Clean Room in the Free World
The clean room at NASA Goddard is 10 stories high, and was constructed that large to accommodate building large satellites. Everything is pristine and clean. In fact, it's cleaner than an operating room!  Why? Because microbes, fibers, pollens, and tiny particles can get on sensitive lenses of satellites and obscure the views. 

Standing in front of a model of the Webb telescope

The clean room has a wall of giant filters (10 stories high) that get replaced every 50 YEARS!  Imagine only having to replace the filter in your furnace once in 50 years. Air blows through the filters and through openings on the opposite wall and funnels around.
The Hubble Space Telescope was built in this clean room!  Now, the Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is being tested and constructed in that same clean room! 
  
WHAT IS THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE? -

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror.  The project is working to a 2018 launch date.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

The Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. 

NEXT: CHECK OUT A HUGE CRYOGENIC (FREEZING) VACUUM CHAMBER

AND SPACE BLANKETS