This is nerd porn of the purest uncut variety: A live webcam stream of the Mars rover "Curiosity" being built in a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. It provides a weirdly mesmerizing backstage view of the nuts-and-bolts process that results in an extraterrestrial explorer. There's a chat window where viewers (1820 as I write this, mid-morning on a weekday) can ask questions for a JPL rep to answer in real time. The tandem of video and comment is educational in all sorts of ways. For instance, I've learned that the construction of a Mars rover apparently requires a lot of guys to stand around in futuristic white jumpsuits, making the scene look like an outtake from Woody Allen's "Sleeper." And as a bonus, I've learned what what the jumpsuits are called:
NASAJPL: Curiosity's clean room technicians are covered head-to-toe in white smocks, aka "bunny suits," to protect against [giving] Earthly contaminants a ride on the rover to Mars.
There are worse ways to spend a Tuesday. Curiosity will launch late next year for her seven-month trip to Mars.
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When the Congressional Science committee wants to talk about the cold weather, and when NASA has to defend their budget by explaining why NASA is important, it can make people who believe in facts… a bit tense.
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That’s a huge room. I’d be truly amazed if they could really keep out all “Earthly contaminants,” and that there are no microbes or anything else anywhere in that room.
Seems likely that the bulk of the decontamination would be done after it is built, just before launch (how are they going to get it to the rocket without being contaminated?), so this probably just trying to keep the contaminant count low to make decontamination easier.
Totally weird, I just posted some quotes from Sleeper to another blog comment.
Worked with the shuttles out at KSC for 3 1/2 years. Bunny suits and booties for the mid body and forward, booties only in the aft.
…with the bunny suits, you’re not doing it properly until you stick a pair of ears on, or a tail, or a dolphin fin, made out of lint-free cloth…
I get an unstoppable urge to hum the oompa lumpa song
As a daily wearer of bunny suits, the most important thing is to empty the bladder before you go in the cleanroom, and anticipate your bodily needs BEFORE it becomes urgent (it takes a few minutes to ‘degown’). Accidents do happen.
Re: #3 SamSam – the general rule is based on what class the cleanroom is: class 1000 = no more than 1000 particles/cubic meter of air (of 3 microns or bigger), class 100 = no more than 100/cubic meter, class 10, etc. (at least this is how our cleanroom is measured). Positive air pressure in the room helps keep out the creepy crawlies as does recirculating the air thru HEPA filters.
I have some cool SEM images I did when inspecting wafers years ago; one in particular looked exactly like a cigarette butt, which turned out to be a stray whisker from one of our techs which contaminated a vacuum chamber, landed on a die on the wafer and killed the die. His beard net and hood were not properly put on.
Does someone know a direct link? This looks like one for the keep-an-eye-on-it folder.
This screams for a time-lapse video. Anyone made one from the stream?
And B-B – any way to keep me signed in for more than one day?
Is it wrong that this made me hot?
Oops, never mind. Seems I had to click with this thingy here on that triangular doohikcy there.
It’s time to analyze the cell structure.
That thing killed my cat!
/joke
That’s a huge room. I’d be truly amazed if they could really keep out all “Earthly contaminants,” and that there are no microbes or anything else anywhere in that room.
Seems likely that the bulk of the decontamination would be done after it is built, just before launch (how are they going to get it to the rocket without being contaminated?), so this probably just trying to keep the contaminant count low to make decontamination easier.
Totally weird, I just posted some quotes from Sleeper to another blog comment.
Worked with the shuttles out at KSC for 3 1/2 years. Bunny suits and booties for the mid body and forward, booties only in the aft.
…with the bunny suits, you’re not doing it properly until you stick a pair of ears on, or a tail, or a dolphin fin, made out of lint-free cloth…
I get an unstoppable urge to hum the oompa lumpa song
As a daily wearer of bunny suits, the most important thing is to empty the bladder before you go in the cleanroom, and anticipate your bodily needs BEFORE it becomes urgent (it takes a few minutes to ‘degown’). Accidents do happen.
Re: #3 SamSam – the general rule is based on what class the cleanroom is: class 1000 = no more than 1000 particles/cubic meter of air (of 3 microns or bigger), class 100 = no more than 100/cubic meter, class 10, etc. (at least this is how our cleanroom is measured). Positive air pressure in the room helps keep out the creepy crawlies as does recirculating the air thru HEPA filters.
I have some cool SEM images I did when inspecting wafers years ago; one in particular looked exactly like a cigarette butt, which turned out to be a stray whisker from one of our techs which contaminated a vacuum chamber, landed on a die on the wafer and killed the die. His beard net and hood were not properly put on.
Does someone know a direct link? This looks like one for the keep-an-eye-on-it folder.
This screams for a time-lapse video. Anyone made one from the stream?
And B-B – any way to keep me signed in for more than one day?
Is it wrong that this made me hot?
Oops, never mind. Seems I had to click with this thingy here on that triangular doohikcy there.
reminds me of Wonkavision