Facilities
- Plum Brook Station (PBS)
The 6,400-acre (2,600 ha) Plum Brook field station near Sandusky, Ohio is also part of Glenn. It specializes in very large-scale tests which would be hazardous within the confines of the main campus. The Spacecraft Propulsion Facility at Plum Brook Station (PBS) is the world's only facility capable of testing full-scale upper-stage launch vehicles and rocket engines under simulated high-altitude conditions. The PBS Space Power Facility (SPF) houses the world's largest space environment vacuum chamber. PBS also has cryogenic test facilities and a hypersonic wind tunnel. In 2008 NASA agreed to pay $33.5 million to have its Plum Brook Reactor Facility decontaminated and decommissioned.
- Icing tunnel
An icing tunnel is capable of simulating atmospheric icing condition to test the effect of ice accretion on aircraft wings and body as well as to test anti-icing systems for aircraft.
- Zero Gravity Research Facility
The Zero Gravity Research Facility is a vertical vacuum chamber used for microgravity experiments. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. The facility uses vertical drop tests in a vacuum chamber to investigate the behavior of components, systems, liquids, gases, and combustion in such circumstances.
The facility consists of a concrete-lined shaft, 28 feet (8.5 m) in diameter, that extends 510 feet (160 m) below ground level. An aluminum vacuum chamber, 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and 470 feet (140 m) high, is contained within the concrete shaft. The pressure in this vacuum chamber is reduced to 13.3 newtons per square meter (1.3×10−4atm) before use.
After the closing of the JAMIC facility in Japan, the NASA Zero-G facility is the largest microgravity facility in the world.
Another, smaller drop tower remains in use. That tower has a free fall time of 2.2 seconds, and the DIME program is conducted there.
- Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility (B-2)
- Rocket Engine Test Facility
This is a facility that was designated a National Historic Landmark, but de-designated later.
Read more about this topic: Glenn Research Center
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—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
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