On The Job: NASA Wallops Island
When you think of NASA, the first thing you think of is space and interplanetary exploration. But the reality is, they do so much more than that, and a lot of that work happens within our own atmosphere. 47 ABC was invited to NASA Wallops Island to learn what goes on in the scientific balloon lab.
When you first walk into the lab, it’s overwhelming! There are models of the scientific balloons hanging from the ceiling and all sorts of machines everywhere! And contrary to popular belief, folks in the lab do not wear white lab coats.
Dr. Magdi Said is the balloon research and development laboratory manager at NASA Wallops Island and he’s been working for NASA for 25 years! There’s one misconception Dr. Said would like to clear up.
Dr. Said tells 47 ABC, “There’s a misconception people mix it between scientific balloon and weather balloons. Scientific balloons are completely different than weather balloons.”
A scientific balloon is a large white balloon that supports planetary science, earth science and different phenomena in space. Unlike a weather balloon, they are massive in size. One balloon could be 400 feet in diameter. You could easily fit a football field inside one of the balloons. Football field not doing it for you? You can fit 200 Goodyear blimps in one balloon.
Another amazing fact? They are built to travel up to 120,000 feet into space. That’s about four times the altitude of a commercial airplane. Scientific balloons are always attached to a device called a payload which are typically built by college students at different universities around the country, and they cost millions of dollars.
So how do these balloons get up into space? Well, with a little helium of course but there are many other factors, like the type material used to create the balloon. But before they are sent up into space, scientists must study the materials and test them to see if they can survive.
The first step is finding out how far the balloon material would stretch. To do this, you must cut two strips of the balloon plastic-like material with a cutter, one in either direction. After that step is done, you need to measure the thickness of the material before it gets stretched. After measuring it in three different places using a machine, you get the average. Then its time to stretch!
Next, you must test to see how the material would behave when it is pressurized. After putting a pattern film on a pressure machine, it was stretched from every angle. After that, you must test to see if the material would be flexible under cold weather. This is important because the balloon travels through different layers of the atmosphere including one called the tropisphere.
Dr. Said tells 47 ABC, “The tropisphere is very cold, the temperature can do down to negative eighty degrees.”
The machine to test this is set at negative ninety seven degrees centigrade! A metal ball is then dropped on top of the plastic material to see how badly it cracks.
Finally, last but not least, the rope test. The type of rope, zylon, is the strongest material available in the market as far as fibers and it goes inside the balloons to give it shape. The results were astonishing, the rope was able to hold over two tons. To put that in perspective, you can hang about two cars from one strand of that rope.
Next week on “On the Job” 47 ABC heads to Cake Art in Salisbury. If you have an idea or have a business that you think should be featured in our “On the Job” reports you can email Michelle at michelle_mackonochie@wmdt.com.
