What’s Behind This Door? – Chamber A

"What’s Behind This Door?" takes you behind the doors of various facilities located at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston being used to return humanity to the Moon, through the Artemis campaign. The series features interviews with NASA experts and provides a rare insight into all of the preparation as teams get ready for lunar missions. This episode one takes place in Building 32 at NASA Johnson in the Chamber A facility. It features NASA subject matter expert, Steven Del Papa, who details the science behind the thermal testing conducted in the chamber. Join NASA as we go forward to the Moon and on to Mars -- discover the latest on Earth, the Solar System and beyond with a weekly update in your inbox. Subscribe at: https://www.nasa.gov/subscribe

What is said in the film

Oh no! I’m falling! Oops! Hold on! Hey, it's Jess!

And I want to know what's behind this door? Can I say it? Yeah! You say it! Action!

Can you tell me where we are? We are in chamber A which is in building 32 in NASA's Johnson Space Center. And it is one of the largest thermal vacuum chambers in the world. It is a national historic landmark and was originally built in 1963 to support the Apollo program. It actually had the command module and the service module, and it was used to simulate the on orbit conditions.

So they were actually in the chamber, They were in the chamber, They were in the chamber, “while the test was going on. ” inside the command and service module. We had liquid nitrogen flowing to the shroud to give the cold cryogenic on orbit conditions. One side of the chamber had quartz heaters in order to simulate the Sun heating one side of it. And then while they were in there, the command service module actually rotated to simulate rotating orbiting around the earth.

oh wow! That's actually really cool. So that's why we need a thermal vacuum chamber, not only for the vacuum, but also for the temperatures that it's going to see. Is there like a couple of steps that you follow when doing a test? We have what's known as a ruffian train that removes the bulk of the air out and that is using typical vacuum pumps.

then we turn on our high vacuum system, which is turbo molecular pumps. And then we have cryogenic pumps that actually have a very cold surface so that the air will freeze to it. At that point, we do whatever operations or checkouts of the hardware, thermal cycling, if need be. Once that's complete, then we go into the end phase of the test where we start warming up the shrouds. The thing you have to be careful of when you warm up.

the shrouds is what's known as the burp. What is the burp? It's when you liberate all that frozen air off of the shrouds. Then you see that as a rise in the chamber pressure. So this is a giant door.

How big is it? So that door is 40 feet in diameter, or roughly about three stories tall. Wow! That’s really big. Can I close it?

You can close it by hand if you wanted too. Yea, go ahead! No way! Lets go do that! It's It's going backwards!

Oh no! I’m falling Oops! Hold on! Oh no! I’m falling!

Oops! Hold on! Hey, it's Jess! And I want to know what's behind this Door? Can I say it?

Yeah! You say it! Action! Can you tell me where we are? We are in chamber A which is in building 32 in NASA's Johnson Space Center.

And it is one of the largest thermal vacuum chambers in the world. It is a national historic landmark and was originally built in 1963 to support the Apollo program. It actually had the command module and the service module, and it was used to simulate the on orbit conditions. So they were actually in the chamber, They were in the chamber, They were in the chamber, “while the test was going on. ” inside the command and service module.

We had liquid nitrogen flowing to the shroud to give the cold cryogenic on orbit conditions. One side of the chamber had quartz heaters in order to simulate the Sun heating one side of it. And then while they were in there, the command service module actually rotated to simulate rotating orbiting around the earth. oh wow! That's actually really cool.

We are setting up for a test to support VIPER. And for this specific test, we're estimating we're going to get about 150 degrees Celsius. So that's why we need a thermal vacuum chamber, not only for the vacuum, but also for the temperatures that it's going to see. So tell me about VIPER. What does that all have to do with the Artemis missions?

Humans living on the lunar surface, they're going to use whatever material is there. Purpose of the VIPER mission is to map out and quantify how much water there is at the perspective landing site. Is there like a couple of steps that you follow when doing a test? We have what's known as a ruffian train that removes the bulk of the air out and that is using typical vacuum pumps. then we turn on our high vacuum system, which is turbo molecular pumps.

And then we have cryogenic pumps that actually have a very cold surface so that the air will freeze to it. At that point, we do whatever operations or checkouts of the hardware, thermal cycling, if need be. Once that's complete, then we go into the end phase of the test where we start warming up the shrouds. The thing you have to be careful of when you warm up. the shrouds is what's known as the burp.

What is the burp? It's when you liberate all that frozen air off of the shrouds. Then you see that as a rise in the chamber pressure. So this is a giant door. How big is it?

So that door is 40 feet in diameter, or roughly about three stories tall. Wow! That’s really big. Can I close it? You can close it by hand if you wanted too.

Yea, go ahead! No way! Lets go do that! It's It's going backwards! Oh no!

I’m falling Oops! Hold on! Well, that was fun! I give it 26 VIPERS!

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