The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator offered an environment similar to the zero-gravity of space by floating people and test hardware in a large pool of water. Engineers and astronauts developed hardware and practiced procedures in this tank from its completion in 1968 through its decommissioning in 1997. George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recognized the need for underwater simulations of extra-vehicular activities (EVAs) and developed three successively larger tanks for the purpose. The Neutral Buoyancy Simulator contributed significantly to the American manned space program. Skylab, the Space Shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope, and the International Space Station have all benefited from the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator. Until Johnson Space Center constructed the Weightless Environment Test Facility in the mid-1970s, MSFC had the only NASA-owned test facility that allowed engineers and astronauts to become familiar with the dynamics of body motion under weightless conditions.
The water within the simulator was temperature controlled, continuously recirculated and filtered. Special systems were integrated into the tank for underwater audio and video, pressure-suit environmental control and emergency rescue and treatment. Life support was simultaneously provided by these systems for up to four pressure-suited subjects. Additional systems included data acquisition and recording, underwater lighting, special underwater pneumatic and electrical power operations of motor, valves, controls, and indicators that required for high fidelity and functional engineering mockups and trainers.
Read more about Neutral Buoyancy Simulator: Principles of Operation, Origins and First Tank, Second Tank, Foundations For A Third Tank, Third Tank, 1969 To 1997, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words neutral and/or buoyancy:
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The boatmen appeared to lead an easy and contented life, and we thought that we should prefer their employment ourselves to many professions which are much more sought after. They suggested how few circumstances are necessary to the well-being and serenity of man, how indifferent all employments are, and that any may seem noble and poetic to the eyes of men, if pursued with sufficient buoyancy and freedom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)