When it was constructed in 1969, the Space Power Facility (SPF) was the world’s largest vacuum chamber. It stands more than 122 feet high, 100 feet in diameter and provides a vacuum environment for the study of space propulsion.
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Browsing Posts in Glenn Research
In this 1957 photo, engineers at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center) check a model of a supersonic aircraft before a test run in the 10 ft. x 10 ft. Supersonic Wind Tunnel test section.
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An engineer and a technician check out an ion engine in the Electronic Propulsion Research Building at the Lewis Research Center (now NASA’s Glenn Research Center) in 1961. Ion engines use electrostatic charge.
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In this 1966 photo, a plasma thruster at NASA’s Lewis Research Center simulates Van Allen Belts, rings of radiation around the Earth. The Cleveland, Ohio, center is now John H. Glenn Research Center.
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The Glenn Research Center’s Icing Research Tunnel is the world’s largest refrigerated wind tunnel. During tests of a heated-air system in 2003, researchers gathered information on the effects of runback ice on aerodynamic performance.
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In this 1957 photograph, an unnamed NACA physicist studies alpha rays in a continuous cloud chamber. NACA, the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics, was NASA’s predecessor. Scientists at the Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) used the cloud chamber to obtain information aimed at minimizing undesirable effects of radiation.
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While the Dawn spacecraft is visiting the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, NASA Glenn has been developing the next generation of ion thrusters for future missions. NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project has developed a 7-kilowatt ion thruster that can provide the capabilities needed in the future.
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This photograph from 1966 shows the Zero Gravity Facility at Lewis Research Center, now known as John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field. This tunnel view looks up from level 5. In this experiment, the tower dropped 460 feet and allowed scientists 5.18 seconds of zero gravity. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 555 feet tall.
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The window in the sidewall of the 8- by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center shows a 1.79 percent scale model of a future concept supersonic aircraft built by The Boeing Company.
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NASA Glenn scientists are working with manufacturers to figure out how ice can accumulate at high altitudes in hot turbofan engines.
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