Chamber B
Johnson Space Center’s Chamber B is a 7.6 m (25 ft) diameter x 7.9 m (26 ft) high test facility used for human testing in a vacuum environment, and for crewed space operations testing. Chamber B is a human-rated chamber equipped with a traversing monorail that provides weight relief to one suited crewmember at a time. The traversing monorail allows two degrees of freedom inside the chamber and 18.6 square meters (200 square feet) of working space. It also has dual crew-locks to provide easy access to the test articles as well as a means of transporting test crewmembers to the test environment and back during tests. The crew-locks can also be used as an altitude chamber for independent tests. One crew-lock is equipped with a water deluge system and other features that permit its use for crew operations with oxygen-rich atmospheres. Additional test support equipment includes an internal jib crane, mass spectrometers, infrared cameras, use of television cameras, and two rolling bridge cranes with a capacity of 45,000 kg (100,000 lb), which are used to remove the chamber top and insert large test articles.
Specifications:
| Outside Dimensions: | 10.7 m (35 ft) diameter x 13.1 m (43 ft) high |
| Working Dimensions: | 7.6 m (25 ft) diameter x 7.9 m (26 ft) high |
| Test Article Weight: | Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Visit NASA.gov for current information |
| Instrumentation: | Real-time data acquisition and remote control |
| Access: | 10.7 m (35 ft) diameter removable top head; dual crewlocks at floor level |
| Types of pumps: | Staged roughing pumps, valved and trapped oil diffusion pumps, and 20 K (-424 F) cryopumps |
| Pumpdown Time: | 8 hours to test conditions |
| Pumping Capacity: | 1 x 107 liters/sec condensables and 2 x 105 liters/sec noncondensables at 1 x 10-6 torr pressure; Note: Usual chamber inleakage less then 3 x 105 liters/sec of air at 1 x 10-6 torr pressure |
| Repressurization: | Controllable from 90 sec minimum using dry gas. |
| Full Chamber Shroud: | Subcooled 90 K (-298 F) LN2 shroud 130,000 W total heat absorption capacity, 1615 W/m2 (150 W/ft2) maximum heat flux |
| Wall Emissivity: | 0.95 |
| Measurement: | Real-time traversing radiometer system |