
Inside NASA’s Mysterious Rubber Room - kghose
http://scriptunasimages.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/inside-nasas-rubber-room/
======
JagMicker
Very cool!

And, if you like this, you'd probably also enjoy learning about the Plutonium
Pit storage areas at the Pantex plant:

<http://cryptome.org/pantex-nukes.htm>

<http://www.texasradiation.org/pantex.html>

<http://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk1/1993/9320/932010.PDF>

~~~
regularfry
From your second link:

    
    
        On February 2, warning lights on a radiation warning system failed due to 
        previous software modifications to the fail-safe system. It was discovered 
        that no records of the revisions to the software were ever required or 
        maintained, so the direct cause of the malfunction was unclear.
    

I have no words.

~~~
jrockway
You're surprised that people write buggy software without discipline?

~~~
DanBC
I'm gently surprised that people write buggy software without discipline when
they're dealing with something that can kill many people.

~~~
jrockway
This reminds me that I should start asking Therac-25 questions in interviews.

~~~
Wingman4l7
(A classic case study -- a radiation therapy machine that was badly
programmed, resulting in several accidents where patients were given massive
overdoses of radiation).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25>

~~~
wlll
This is one of the reasons I opt-out of airport scans. The less I stand in-
front of something emitting radiation the less chance there is for a software
error to cause me to get a higher dosage than was intended.

------
shabble
I think this is the end part of the "Emergency Egress System" which included a
slide-wire basket from the top of the vehicle support structure/gantry.

Some of the images at <http://history.nasa.gov/ap10fj/as10-image-library.htm>
do look a lot like the arched solid concrete room entrances, and there are a
few of the wire system as well.

I recall (on HN I think) a while back there was an article about the slide
part of the system and the crazy specifications required to attain some level
of plausible survivability.

Edit: some more images at
<http://www.collectspace.com/ubb/Forum40/HTML/000164.html> including the
armoured personnel carrier as a last hope contingency.

Edit 2: Found it! [http://americandigest.org/mt-
archives/american_studies/how_t...](http://americandigest.org/mt-
archives/american_studies/how_to_get_out.php)

~~~
URSpider94
No, not exactly. The author points that out in the piece. The zip-line is a
later addition that takes you some distance away from the launch pad. The
"rubber room" and blast room are, literally, directly underneath the rocket.

~~~
gridspy
The Rubber Room is intended for critical ground crews. The zip line is
intended for astronauts.

This is mentioned in the piece as the zip-line is the safer option when you're
at the top of the tower and the base of the rocket is on fire.

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scott_usa
2min youtube film from Saturn V days -reporter takes the slide.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx2BobKku-c>

~~~
chiph
That's James Burke, in the years before he created his excellent "Connections"
and "The Day The Universe Changed" series. Highly recommended - I watched
every episode when they came out starting in the late 1970s.

~~~
njharman
Should have known that guy was awesome before Connections.

------
guyzero
It's still not clear to me at all why the first room is rubberized. There's an
escape slide, a rubber room and the actual chamber that's blast-proof. Why
does the middle room need to be rubberized?

~~~
ISL
From the article: _"I quickly noticed how the room got it name as the walls
and floor are completely covered in rubber over a soft cushion that was meant
to absorb the blast."_

The seats in the room also have seat belts. Looks like the room's designers
expected a violent experience.

~~~
guyzero
So I am not being facetious when I say I don't understand I I guess your
comment makes sense, but honestly... I still don't understand. The rocket
explodes, a massive shockwave of expanding gas gets pushed down the chute into
the middle room. The actual protected room has a vault-like door, is on
springs, has massive padded chairs with seatbelts. That I get. But how does
rubberizing the middle room help? How much of the shockwave can it possibly
absorb?

I'm not rhetorically trying to say it's useless. I'm perfectly happy to admit
that NASA's engineers have a better grasp of this situation than I do. I just
don't get how it helps.

~~~
eddieroger
My guess:

The room was supported by springs according the article. It also said the
blasts rivaled small nuclear explosions. If something that big goes boom right
over you, those springs are going to be tested. I assume the rubber helps
prevent the room from bottoming out should the springs be insufficient. If
anything, I think they didn't know what to expect, so they planned for the
worst.

Also, that small, 24-hr safe room was lacking in 24 hours worth of amenities,
like a bathroom and water supply. But I guess being thirsty or having to
urinate is better than exploding.

~~~
snogglethorpe
According to the article, there actually is a toilet (behind the camera)...
and supplies for generating oxygen and filtering air, which suggests it's
pretty likely there's a bit of water etc too.

------
finnw
> _An exploding Saturn V was calculated to have the power of a small nuclear
> bomb_

So all you need is a lead-lined refrigerator

------
seanp2k2
[ this was meant as a response to people calling out the image looking weird ]

EXIF of
[http://scriptunasimages.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/wscriptu...](http://scriptunasimages.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/wscriptunasii_rubberroom-9330.jpg)
:

    
    
      Make	Canon
      Model	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
      Date	2012:11:19 09:37:43
      Serial Number	022021008570
    
      ApertureValue	3.356144
      Artist	Walter Scriptunas II
      CustomRendered	Normal process
      DateTime	2012:11:22 15:39:32
      DateTimeDigitized	2012:11:19 09:37:43
      DateTimeOriginal	2012:11:19 09:37:43
      ExifIFDPointer	354
      ExifVersion	0230
      ExposureBias	0 
      ExposureMode	1
      ExposureProgram	Manual
      ExposureTime	0.06666666666666667
      FNumber	3.2
      Flash	Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
      FocalLength	16
      FocalPlaneResolutionUnit	4
      FocalPlaneXResolution	160
      FocalPlaneYResolution	160
      ISOSpeedRatings	3200
      ImageDescription	This massive blast door would seal off the bunker from all the violence happening outside.
      LensSerialNumber	000082f82b
      Make	Canon
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      MeteringMode	Pattern
      Model	Canon EOS 5D Mark III
      ResolutionUnit	2
      SceneCaptureType	Standard
      SerialNumber	022021008570
      ShutterSpeedValue	3.906891
      Software	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.2 (Macintosh)
      SubsecTimeDigitized	26
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      WhiteBalance	Auto white balance
      XResolution	9000
      YResolution	9000

~~~
WalterS
No clue why people thought these were heavily photoshopped... Most of the
photos I had seen of these rooms the photographer had used a flash, I
preferred how the natural lighting looked. It added to the eeriness of the
place I think.

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hymloth
Some photos remind me of the MYST series..

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shawn-butler
I wonder how much of this was designed not so much to ensure the safety of the
astronauts and ground crew but rather to ease the mind of the people who had
to make the decision to put them at risk that they at least tried to do
something?

30 seconds down a chute seems like well, not a realistic survival scenario in
the case of catastrophic explosion on the pad.

~~~
Daniel_Newby
Rockets are a lot like skyscrapers: they burn slowly and sedately for several
minutes until the structural members overheat and collapse. (Assuming kerosene
fuel like the Apollo rockets used.)

~~~
caf
The upper stages used hydrogen - if that leaks (or the LOX) then your bad day
is going to proceed much more rapidly.

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mdanger
"Rubber Room", for me, at least, conjures up a whole different set of images:

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/350/h...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/350/human-resources)

------
imglorp
Who says NASA doesn't have a sense of humor.

The occupants are shielded from the blast by many yards of concrete, steel,
and sand but the very last line of defense is... a gauze curtain.

------
jstanley
I'm not sure if it's the camera or the lighting, but these images all look
suspiciously raytraced to me.

~~~
dangrossman
There are other photos by other photographers of these same rooms --
[http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/04/dismantling-
the-s...](http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/04/dismantling-the-space-
shuttle-program/100045/#img13)

Edit: Same room at the other launch pad, 39A vs 39B. Both had identical blast
rooms per the article.

~~~
jstanley
Looking at those just makes me even more suspicious.

Compare
[http://scriptunasimages.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/wscriptu...](http://scriptunasimages.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/wscriptunasii_rubberroom-9330.jpg)
to
[http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/shuttle041311/s_d1...](http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/shuttle041311/s_d15_20104664.jpg)

Perhaps things were repainted, but then why does the handle on the door work
in the opposite direction?

EDIT: Also, the "emergency egress route" has changed direction? In the
Atlantic image, it is pointing "up" the door, indicating that people walk
through it towards the camera (when the door is closed). In the Scriptunas
image, it points to the left, which doesn't even make sense when the door is
closed.

~~~
majormajor
My reading is that when the door's closed you don't need the sign at all since
if you can see it, you're already in the blast room. The left-pointing arrow
seems like the better way to do it to me, when viewing the open door from the
hall (though either is probably perfectly clear). The two sites being built by
different contractors seems enough to cover the differences in
painting/finishing touches (unless there's a standard open/close direction for
vault doors, I wouldn't know :) ).

But then, "raytraced" never occured to me looking at the photos, just "taken
by an actual good camera, not a phone, with a fast lens so that it can take
good indoors photos without flash."

------
Aardwolf
The pictures remind me of the Area 51 levels of Tombraider III.

