welcome to NASA's spacecraft chamber of
horrors here spacecraft and components
suffer through a grueling battery of
tests all in an effort to see if they
are truly capable of performing their
mission and surviving the rigors of
spaceflight as this centrifuge whips
them around they experience the kind of
g-forces or gravitational forces that
they can expect to see on launch
now this interview is not for human use
it can go up to 30 G's which is way more
than a human being can stand they get
shaken on any number of vibration tables
to simulate the vibrations during launch
there's no sound in space but the ride
up can be noisy enough to break things
inside this acoustics chamber the
instruments are blasted with noise in
order to make sure they'll be able to
survive the rocket trip to space
some like the new slick carrier come to
this static load test facility some call
it the rack inside this frame hydraulic
actuators operated by a team of
engineers push and pull the new
composite payload carrier testing its
ability to withstand the stresses of
launch and re-entry based on the results
from the thousand strain gauges placed
on the carrier that passed in the
electromagnetic interference test
chamber radio waves are blasted at the
instrument to see if they will disrupt
its operations the instruments are also
tested to see if they produce any radio
waves that could interfere with other
instruments or systems this is the space
environment chamber
inside this enormous tank spacecraft and
instruments like the new Wide Field
Camera 3 experienced the harshness of
space the air is pumped out to simulate
the vacuum of space and then the real
testing begins this chamber can heat to
a blazing 300 degrees Fahrenheit and
then drop to minus 310 degrees
Fahrenheit in here the spacecraft must
endure the huge temperature extremes it
will experience in orbit as it travels
from full sunshine to the darkness of
Earth's shadow a typical test can take
many weeks
if the spacecraft survives the torture
in here it's pretty much ready for space
if not better it breaks here than after
launch here we have the ability to
understand the problem correct it and
test again all of this testing helps
reduce the risk of failure on orbits and
increase the spacecraft potential for
scientific success