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Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator

Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Mariner 10 in the Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator
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Location	Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
Coordinates	34°12′9.8″N 118°10′22.4″W / 34.202722°N 118.172889°W / 34.202722; -118.172889
Area	less than one acre
Built	1961 (1961)
Architect	NASA
NRHP reference No.	85002812
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 3, 1985[1]
Designated NHL	October 3, 1985[2]

The Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator is a chamber for testing spacecraft in space-like conditions, including extreme cold, high radiation, and near-vacuum pressure. Built in 1961, it is located at the Jet Propulsion LaboratoryinPasadena, California. It has been used to prepare many American space probes for their launches, including the Ranger, Surveyor, Mariner, and Voyager spacecraft.

The first facility of its type, the chamber served as an example for other countries seeking to establish space programs.^[3] It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1985 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.^[2][1]

Description[edit]

The Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator is a stainless-steel cylinder 85 feet (26 m) in height and 27 feet (8.2 m) in diameter. A doorway 15 feet (4.6 m) wide and 25 feet (7.6 m) high provides access for bringing test objects and equipment into the chamber; a personnel access door is built into the larger doorway. Its walls and floor are lined with cooling shrouds that help provide a controllable temperature range from −320 °F (−195.6 °C) to 200 °F (93 °C). A series of lamps, lenses, and mirrors can irradiate the chamber with a directed beam of simulated solar energy in a variety of patterns and strengths. The chamber can be depressurized to 5×10⁻⁷ torr. Test objects can be mounted with a number of attachment points and methods. The chamber is mounted on a seismically isolated foundation.^[3] The chamber requires about 75 minutes to achieve a space-like environment, and about 21⁄2 hours to return to a normal environment.

Next to the chamber is a clean room in which equipment can be prepared for testing.^[3]

See also[edit]

• List of National Historic Landmarks in California
• Space Environment Simulation Laboratory, built in 1965 at the Johnson Space Center in Texas

References[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to JPL Space Simulator.