Inventor of Air Conditioning Helped Chill NASA Wind Tunnels

Global tensions were high in the fall of 1941 as U-boats harassed ships in the Atlantic and German forces pushed deep into the Soviet Union. There was a critical need for the United States to get the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)’s new engine laboratory (today, NASA’s Glenn Research Center) in operation as soon as possible. It was especially important to complete its Altitude Wind Tunnel (AWT), which could be used to improve the engine performance of high-altitude combat aircraft.

NACA engineers were experts in wind tunnel design, but simulating 30,000-foot altitudes to test full-sized engines in the new facility posed several unique challenges. Perhaps the most daunting was chilling the millions of cubic feet of airflow in the tunnel to -47 degrees Fahrenheit. The NACA’s attempts to design adequate cooling coils for the unprecedented system proved ineffectual. To expedite the design process, the NACA convinced Willis Carrier, the nation’s premier refrigeration authority, to design the cooling system for the massive tunnel.

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In October 1941, Vannevar Bush, a special liaison between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the scientific community, set up a meeting between NACA leaders and Carrier, who had invented the world’s first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. Although Carrier felt that his company was too busy with other military-related projects to bid on the tunnel project, he agreed to meet with those directly involved with the effort on Nov. 6, 1941. The NACA team only discussed the system in broad terms but stressed the importance of the tunnel to national interests.

In the end, Carrier agreed to perform some initial experiments and bid on the project. The NACA was so impressed by Carrier’s confidence and technical acumen that in early 1942 it planned to build a second tunnel, the Icing Research Tunnel, using the AWT’s proposed refrigeration system.

The Carrier Corporation officially began the project in March 1942 as the first tunnel’s foundations were laid in Cleveland. Carrier formed several teams to work on different aspects of the system and built a model of the AWT to test the concepts. They regularly worked 16-hour days to meet the design deadline. As one engineer stated, “Every assignment had to be done yesterday.”

Several new tactics were employed to meet the unique demands of the effort. Engineers designed many of the compressor valves and pumps specifically for the project and decided to use Freon-12, which had never been used on such a large scale, as the refrigerant. The most significant challenge was fitting the required 8,000 square feet of cooling coils into the 2,000-square-foot tunnel section. The solution was to arrange the coils in an accordion-like fashion and add turning vanes across the back to maintain the airflow’s velocity and pressure.

The AWT’s cooling system was installed over the summer of 1943. Carrier and his team were present during the trial runs, and the tunnel began formal operation in February 1944. Its unique ability to test full-scale engines in simulated altitude conditions helped resolve engine cooling issues for the B-29 bomber during World War II and significantly advanced the development of the jet engine in the 1940s and 1950s. NASA converted the tunnel into a vacuum facility in 1963 and eventually shut it down in the 1970s.

The IRT, which came online in late summer 1944, creates freezing clouds to study ice buildup on aircraft components and test de-icing systems. Today, the IRT is the longest running – and among the largest –icing tunnel in the world.

In 1987, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers named the IRT an International Historic Engineering Landmark and noted, “there was never a more difficult, more exacting, or more vital refrigerating system than the one designed and built by the Carrier Corporation for the wind tunnels in Cleveland.”

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NASA: Let’s Ketchup on International Space Station Tomato Research

Growing food aboard the International Space Station is one of the many research investigations ripe for long duration spaceflight missions to the Moon and Mars.

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio recently shared the saucy story of two rogue tomatoes, which he had accidentally lost track of while harvesting for the eXposed Root On-Orbit Test System (XROOTS) experiment he conducted aboard the space station in 2022. The experiment uses hydroponic and aeroponic techniques to grow plants without soil or other growth media and could provide suitable solutions for plant systems needed for future space exploration missions.

While celebrating the space station’s 25th anniversary of operations, Expedition 70 crew members revealed they found the lost tomatoes, joking that Rubio did not eat the tomatoes as they suspected. Despite being nearly a year after the initial disappearance of the tomatoes, the fruit was found in a plastic bag dehydrated and slightly squished. Other than some discoloration, it had no visible microbial or fungal growth.

During his U.S. record-breaking 371-day stay aboard station, Rubio also conducted another a-peeling experiment for the VEG-05 study, which helps address the need for a continuous fresh-food production system in space. This experiment used the space station’s Veggie facility to grow dwarf tomatoes focusing on the impact of light quality and fertilizer on fruit production, microbial food safety, nutritional value, and taste acceptability by the crew.

While the rogue tomatoes found from the XROOTS experiment will not be returning to Earth for analysis as they were discarded, plant research aboard space station continues with Plant Habitat-03, returning to Earth during the upcoming splashdown of SpaceX’s 29th commercial resupply mission. Plant Habitat-03 is one of the first multi-generational plant studies aboard the space station which could help researchers assess whether genetic adaptations in one generation of plants grown in space can transfer to the next. Results from this study could help identify genetic elements that increase the adaptability of plants to spaceflight providing insight into how to grow repeated generations of crops to provide food and other services on future space missions.

The benefits of growing plants in space don’t stop there, astronauts report there are psychological benefits to time spent gardening, increasing their quality of life in space, and boosting their morale. Research aboard the space station is advancing the technology and scientific knowledge needed to successfully grow plants in space and help humans push the boundaries of space travel. This work also helps efforts to improve plants grown for food and other important uses here on Earth.

Read more about plant research on the space station: Station Science 101: Plant Research – NASA.

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Christine Giraldo

NASA Facility Builds on Space Station Legacy at Kennedy

Built to be the last stop for components of the International Space Station, the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, has been given a new name that honors this legacy while embracing its role as a multi-tenant processing facility.

Agency officials have updated the name of the 457,000 square foot, three-story building to “Space Systems Processing Facility,” recognizing its progression into a workplace for processing hardware bound for the station as well as to the Moon and beyond.

“Kennedy Space Center has a strong history of supporting the missions that have improved life on our planet while inspiring the world,” said Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro. “For the last 25 years, the facility has processed many of the critical components and elements necessary to build and sustain the work of the International Space Station. This name change reflects its remarkable evolution into a dynamic, multi-user processing environment in the wake of the center’s transformation to the nation’s premier spaceport, and we are seeing our vision of igniting space exploration and discovery come to life.”

Today, NASA programs such as Artemis and Commercial Resupply Services use the SSPF processing areas, with Gateway processing set to begin within the next few years. Commercial companies such as Northrop Grumman, Sierra Space, and SpaceX also manufacture and process payloads and hardware in the facility.

“All of the tenants in the facility are under contract with NASA to develop a product,” said Kevin Zari, associate director for the International Space Station and Exploration. “The next step in the evolution of the SSPF is going from government to commercial, just like we did with Low Earth Orbit launch vehicles. Soon, commercial entities might be using the facility, or some parts of the facility, on purely commercial ventures.”

Built originally for assembling and processing components for the space station, the SSPF hosted processing of the first U.S.-built component of the station, Node 1 – or the Unity connecting module – which was carried to orbit on STS-88 from Kennedy in December 1998. Node 1 helped kick off a 25-year legacy of 275 launches to the station, 337 dockings or redockings of spacecraft or modules, and over 3,700 science investigations since Expedition 0. This includes hosting 273 people from 21 countries – and counting – visiting or living on the orbiting laboratory. The SSPF played a key role each step of the way as the main site for processing station components, flight hardware, and science experiments in the clean room environment of its processing bays.

“The SSPF started off with the need to meet the requirements of the space station program,” Zari said. “Since the space shuttle was the lift vehicle for assembling the space station, with the exception of the Russian module and components, all NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) equipment came here to the SSPF for processing prior to launch.”

Space shuttle missions delivered nine elements of the station processed in the SSPF: Unity, Z1 truss, P6 integrated truss, Destiny, Canadarm 2, the joint airlock, and the S0, S1, and P1 trusses. All preparation and postflight maintenance for other vital parts of space station assembly was conducted in the SSPF, including multi-purpose logistics modules with critical supplies and science experiments that were flown to the station.

“Even while the space station was still being built in the SSPF, you had science being checked out and ready to fly up to the station,” Curt Horanic, International Space Station technical director. “The SSPF was critical to assemble the space station, to test space station hardware on the ground, and to the science. First and foremost, the station is a laboratory and the research that’s happening is helping humans on Earth. And all of that research, for the most part, is coming through the SSPF.”

Both Horanic and Zari are among the small group of Kennedy employees who have been a part of the SSPF’s evolution since the beginning. Located just east of the Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, groundbreaking for the SSPF took place in March 1991 and dedication occurred in June 1994.

“I remember being across the street at the Operations and Checkout Building when they used a golden shovel to dig the dirt that was here,” said Zari. “It’s been an amazing journey to watch it transform from a facility with only the space station in mind to a multi-program, multi-tenanted facility.”

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Jason Costa

Experience the Launch of NASA’s PACE Mission

Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission and create content based on the experience. PACE is a NASA mission scheduled to launch no earlier than Feb. 6, 2024, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The PACE mission will continue and improve NASA’s 20-year record of satellite observations of global ocean biology, aerosols, and clouds. PACE will help us better understand how the ocean and atmosphere exchange carbon dioxide, measure key atmospheric variables associated with air quality and Earth’s climate, and monitor ocean health, in part by studying phytoplankton, tiny plants and algae that sustain the marine food web. 

If your passion is to communicate and engage the world online, then this is the event for you! Seize the opportunity to see and share the #PACE mission launch. 

A maximum of 50 social media users will be selected to attend this three-day event and will be given access similar to news media. 

NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to: 

• View a launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and PACE spacecraft. 
• Tour NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center. 
• Meet and interact with PACE subject matter experts. 
• Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media. 

NASA Social registration for the PACE mission launch opens on Thursday, Dec. 14, and the deadline to apply is at 3 p.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 19. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.   

APPLY NOW 

Do I need to have a social media account to register? 
Yes. This event is designed for people who: 

• Actively use multiple social networking platforms and tools to disseminate information to a unique audience. 
• Regularly produce new content that features multimedia elements. 

• Have the potential to reach a large number of people using digital platforms, or reach a unique audience, separate and distinctive from traditional news media and/or NASA audiences. 
• Must have an established history of posting content on social media platforms. 
• Have previous postings that are highly visible, respected and widely recognized. 

Users on all social networks are encouraged to use the hashtag #NASASocial. Updates and information about the event will be shared on X via @NASASocial and @NASAKennedy, and via posts to Facebook and Instagram. 

How do I register? 
Registration for this event opens Thursday, Dec. 14, and closes at 3 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Registration is for one person only (you) and is non-transferable. Each individual wishing to attend must register separately. Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis. 

Can I register if I am not a U.S. citizen? 
Because of the security deadlines, registration is limited to U.S. citizens. If you have a valid permanent resident card, you will be processed as a U.S. citizen. 

When will I know if I am selected? 
After registrations have been received and processed, an email with confirmation information and additional instructions will be sent to those selected. We expect to send the acceptance notifications on Jan. 8. 

What are NASA Social credentials? 
All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Those chosen must prove through the registration process they meet specific engagement criteria. 

If you do not make the registration list for this NASA Social, you still can attend the launch offsite and participate in the conversation online. Find out about ways to experience a launch here. 

What are the registration requirements? 
Registration indicates your intent to travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and attend the three-day event in person. You are responsible for your own expenses for travel, accommodations, food, and other amenities. 

Some events and participants scheduled to appear at the event are subject to change without notice. NASA is not responsible for loss or damage incurred as a result of attending. NASA, moreover, is not responsible for loss or damage incurred if the event is cancelled with limited or no notice. Please plan accordingly. 

Kennedy is a government facility. Those who are selected will need to complete an additional registration step to receive clearance to enter the secure areas. 

IMPORTANT: To be admitted, you will need to provide two forms of unexpired government-issued identification; one must be a photo ID and match the name provided on the registration. Those without proper identification cannot be admitted.  

For a complete list of acceptable forms of ID, please visit: NASA Credentialing Identification Requirements. 

All registrants must be at least 18 years old. 

What if the launch date changes? 
Many different factors can cause a scheduled launch date to change multiple times. If the launch date changes, NASA may adjust the date of the NASA Social accordingly to coincide with the new target launch date. NASA will notify registrants of any changes by email. 

If the launch is postponed, attendees will be invited to attend a later launch date. NASA cannot accommodate attendees for delays beyond 72 hours. 

NASA Social attendees are responsible for any additional costs they incur related to any launch delay. We strongly encourage participants to make travel arrangements that are refundable and/or flexible. 

What if I cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center? 
If you cannot come to the Kennedy Space Center and attend in person, you should not register for the NASA Social. You can follow the conversation online using #NASASocial. 

You can watch the launch on NASA Television or www.nasa.gov/live. NASA will provide regular launch and mission updates on @NASA, @NASAKennedy, and @NASA_LSP. 

If you cannot make this NASA Social, don’t worry; NASA is planning many other Socials in the near future at various locations! 

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Andres D. Almeida

NASA Study Finds Life-Sparking Energy Source and Molecule at Enceladus

A study zooms in on data that NASA’s Cassini gathered at Saturn’s icy moon and finds evidence of a key ingredient for life and a supercharged source of energy to fuel it.

Scientists have known that the giant plume of ice grains and water vapor spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus is rich with organic compounds, some of which are important for life as we know it. Now, scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini mission are taking the evidence for habitability a step further: They’ve found strong confirmation of hydrogen cyanide, a molecule that is key to the origin of life.

The researchers also uncovered evidence that the ocean, which is hiding below the moon’s icy outer shell and supplies the plume, holds a powerful source of chemical energy. Unidentified until now, the energy source is in the form of several organic compounds, some of which, on Earth, serve as fuel for organisms.

The findings, published Thursday, Dec. 14, in Nature Astronomy, indicate there may be much more chemical energy inside this tiny moon than previously thought. The more energy available, the more likely that life might proliferate and be sustained.

“Our work provides further evidence that Enceladus is host to some of the most important molecules for both creating the building blocks of life and for sustaining that life through metabolic reactions,” said lead author Jonah Peter, a doctoral student at Harvard University who performed much of the research while working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Not only does Enceladus seem to meet the basic requirements for habitability, we now have an idea about how complex biomolecules could form there, and what sort of chemical pathways might be involved.”

Versatile and Energetic

“The discovery of hydrogen cyanide was particularly exciting, because it’s the starting point for most theories on the origin of life,” Peter said. Life as we know it requires building blocks, such as amino acids, and hydrogen cyanide is one of the most important and versatile molecules needed to form amino acids. Because its molecules can be stacked together in many different ways, the study authors refer to hydrogen cyanide as the Swiss army knife of amino acid precursors.

“The more we tried to poke holes in our results by testing alternative models,” Peter added, “the stronger the evidence became. Eventually, it became clear that there is no way to match the plume composition without including hydrogen cyanide.”

In 2017, scientists found evidence at Enceladus of chemistry that could help sustain life, if present, in its ocean. The combination of carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen in the plume was suggestive of methanogenesis, a metabolic process that produces methane. Methanogenesis is widespread on Earth, and may have been critical to the origin of life on our planet.

The new work uncovers evidence for additional energy chemical sources far more powerful and diverse than the making of methane: The authors found an array of organic compounds that were oxidized, indicating to scientists that there are many chemical pathways to potentially sustain life in Enceladus’ subsurface ocean. That’s because oxidation helps drive the release of chemical energy.

“If methanogenesis is like a small watch battery, in terms of energy, then our results suggest the ocean of Enceladus might offer something more akin to a car battery, capable of providing a large amount of energy to any life that might be present,” said JPL’s Kevin Hand, co-author of the study and principal investigator of the effort that led to the new results.

Math Is the Way

Unlike earlier research that used lab experiments and geochemical modeling to replicate the conditions Cassini found at Enceladus, the authors of the new work relied on detailed statistical analyses. They examined data collected by Cassini’s ion and neutral mass spectrometer, which studied the gas, ions, and ice grains around Saturn.

By quantifying the amount of information contained in the data, the authors were able to tease out subtle differences in how well different chemical compounds explain the Cassini signal.

“There are many potential puzzle pieces that can be fit together when trying to match the observed data,” Peter said. “We used math and statistical modeling to figure out which combination of puzzle pieces best matches the plume composition and makes the most of the data, without overinterpreting the limited dataset.”

Scientists are still a long way from answering whether life could originate on Enceladus. But as Peter noted, the new work lays out chemical pathways for life that could be tested in the lab.

Meanwhile, Cassini is the mission that keeps giving – long after it revealed that Enceladus is an active moon. In 2017, the mission ended by deliberately plunging the spacecraft into Saturn’s atmosphere. “Our study demonstrates that while Cassini’s mission has ended, its observations continue to provide us with new insights about Saturn and its moons – including the enigmatic Enceladus,” said Tom Nordheim, a JPL planetary scientist who’s a co-author of the study and was a member of the Cassini team.

More About the Mission

The Cassini-Huygens mission was a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, managed the mission for NASA’s Space Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed, and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

For more information about Cassini, visit:

http://nasa.gov/cassini

News Media Contacts

Gretchen McCartney
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-287-4115
gretchen.p.mccartney@jpl.nasa.gov 

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson
NASA Headquarters, Washington
301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

2023-183

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