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hi everybody dan hewitt here and you're

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joining us at chamber a it's a historic

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landmark it's one of the largest vacuum

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chambers in the world i'm joined right

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now by mary ceremeli the lab manager of

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this facility mary thanks so much for

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being here today uh

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no problem it's great so first off real

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quick give us a little history about

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this chamber i mean it's huge it's large

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what's what's it been through what's it

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here it was built in the early 1960s and

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mid-1960s to test the apollo spacecraft

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that went all the way from low earth

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orbit to the moon so that's why it's so

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large because that was a fairly large

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spacecraft that needed a lot of room to

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be able to experience the full

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thermal and vacuum environment of space

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and

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it's been getting a lot of upgrades

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lately because

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yes what have you guys used the chamber

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for in the past uh in the past we've

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used it for mostly things that were too

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big to be tested in smaller chambers

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such as the large payload bay radiators

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for a space shuttle

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or the radiators for space station the

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thermal system for space station also

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vehicle size things like the beagle

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lander

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airbag system that went to mars we've

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also used it for some movie making too

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armageddon future world so it's

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definitely a little famous yes it's our

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resident diva okay

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now upgrades what are some of the

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upgrades you guys are making major

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infrastructure upgrades to this chamber

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what are some of them oh we've we've

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made uh

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several major infrastructure upgrades

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over the last four years to make this

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chamber clean enough to test an optical

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telescope

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as well as make it cold enough those

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were the two major uh goals we needed to

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have

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originally the chamber

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could go to about minus 300 degrees

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fahrenheit but in order to test the

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james webb space telescope we needed it

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to operate around minus 440 degrees

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fahrenheit much colder than any other

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chamber on the planet of this size so

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this is new technology this is a

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new concept in the world for being able

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to get something this size that cold and

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keep it there for 90 days while we're

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testing like you mentioned you're going

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to be testing the james webb space

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telescope what is it

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the james webb space telescope is the

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next hubble it's the next greatest thing

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in

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telescopes and other satellites it's

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actually going to go a million miles

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from earth four times farther away than

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the moon is from us and hang out at the

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l2 lagrange point where it's in at that

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point that's why it's so cold it's very

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very cold at that point since we're so

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far from the influence of the earth and

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the moon

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and it will be able to look for the most

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faint sources of light as close to the

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big bang as we can get

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why do we need to put something like

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james webb in a chamber like this oh

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well james webb is breaking new ground

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on all its technologies on its materials

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technologies and its sensor technologies

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um

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all these things need to be tested out

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before we launch it off to earth because

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once it gets out to the l2 point we're

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not getting it back we're not be able to

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service it refuel it we're not going to

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be able to jump up there and repair it

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we're not able to repair it so it's got

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to work before we launch it so we have

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to fully test out all the systems the

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way it will operate

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on the ground here where it's cheap and

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easy to do so the inside of that chamber

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is basically going to be like what james

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webb is going to live in when it's a

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million miles away that's right it looks

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very unassuming it looks very black

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that's what the james webb telescope was

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going to be looking at is a lot of black

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and searching for very faint sources of

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light amongst that black and it's it's

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going to be very very cold and what are

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what are just some of the general tests

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you guys are going to be running on the

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telescope once it's inside once it's

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inside we're going to be exercising the

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the infrared sensors

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we're going to be

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seeing what the mirror assemblies do

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when they're exposed all exposed

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together at the same time to the cold

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environment so far they've been tested

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individually we're going to test all 18

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mirror segments together

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and make sure that the mechanics and the

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electronics

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all work the way they're supposed to

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before it flies this is one of the last

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tests

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of the all the systems on the james webb

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telescope before it leaves to go to its

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launch site so it's the last place where

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everything will be together to test so

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last stop last chance very important get

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it ready before very important because

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it will launch less than a year later

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after it leaves here from french guiana

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okay yeah all right well fascinating

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again cavernous historic chamber you

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guys are doing some amazing work out

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here

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thanks for giving us an inside look real

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quick really appreciate it

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and if you want to find out more about

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the james webb space telescope or