Canon EOS 5D Mark II
ƒ/5.6
16 mm
1/125
1600
Puzzle Series: What is this, or what do you want it to be?
26 responses to “What’s That? (90)”
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It looks to me like an acceleration chamber for testing the effect of high G-force impact on devices.
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It looks like a gantry crane to me. Made to lift or lower something several stories tall. I don’t think it’s for vertical assembly; there’s no space for any kind of scaffolding, and doesn’t seem to be made for people to work in, aside from observation and maintenance.
I think it’s for up-righting boosters. I imagine them being rolled in underneath on one end, lifted upright, and then rolled out the door.
It looks like the basket on the bottom-right is part of the trolley, which can move back and forth on the arm. The curved thing is a flexible wiring harness- you can see the huge-gauge wires are zip-tied to the harness. However, the trolley can’t move across the arm without the arm moving up, or else the wiring harness will hit the floor. On the other hand, if the arm moves up without the trolley moving over, it will soon run out of slack on the wiring harness. So the trolley always has to move horizontally at more or less the same rate as the arm moves vertically. That motion strongly suggests up-righting to me. -
i’d side with the Rocketeer, in that the blue/silver arm at the far side looks set to propel something at velocity along the central runway track into a wall / sensor at the lower right, with reams of cable-tied looms set at "preferred bend radius" (according to NASA Technical Standard NASA-STD-8739.4) sat to the left. the hangar door is, however, troubling.
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Methinks, it’s a NASA rocket engine test facility.
Perhaps a thrust measurement track… -
I’m leaning towards one of the Ames wind tunnels…. maybe a test item loading cell? Just a WAG.
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Hard vacuum and possibly thermal test chamber for full size space vehicles? Perhaps including horizontal and vertical actuators for shock/vibe testing? This clearly isn’t the big chamber at John Glenn…
And, given the Challenger comment, perhaps this setup is capable of verifying mechanical resonance modes for a full size solid rocket boosters and measuring different failure modes…at temperature?
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Lateral view of the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/research/technology-onepagers/v... -
Some good although small photos – description of the VMS David mentioned can be found here and here. Good puzzle!
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Yes! Now that’s we want it to be!
Bingo David.Orban, a new winner I believe… for one of the few puzzles that lasted past midnight.
The huge VMS (Vertical Motion Simulator) at NASA Ames is used by each Shuttle pilot about a thousand times before their first flight.
The first WF&DT guess was a prescient clue… Indirectly, this can simulate the VAB at KSC… You saw right through to the code in the Matrix… and in fact, that’s exactly what I saw while flying it back to Earth.
I had to also mention that it’s a long-running game… and a Challenger… =)
This is just the bottom half of the room, which is 120 ft. high.
Here is the view greeting me when I turn 30° clockwise:
I’ll post some more photos and video of my last ride… At the end of my training, I just had to buzz the VAB tower…
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I don’t know if it still counts for winning this, but I’ve just been there as I was lecturing at the Singularity University’s inaugural Executive Program at NASA Ames. A visit at the VMS, and other facilities like the Future Flight Center was part of the program.
http://www.singularityu.orgHere are the photos I took (not of the VMS, as I had my video camera with me at the time of the visit):
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidorban/sets/72157622763847188/]We could not ride the VMS as an astronaut was training in it, with a new generation of lunar landers (!). We did get in the other modules, though, including the one for the Shuttle!
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