Music.
Christopher Blair: Hi, kids. Today we're just a few miles away from
NASA's Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Hi everybody, I'm Chris. Here at the Astrotech facility, NASA brings their satellites and their spacecraft
for final processing and checkout before they're launched into orbit.
Kind of like how you might double check your homework before you turn it in to your teacher.
Now, this work is done by NASA engineers and scientists inside what is called a "clean room."
No, no, not that kind of a clean room. Totally, totally different, but don't worry about it.
A very good a friend of mine is going to take you and I inside one of these NASA clean rooms.
My friend just had one stipulation and that was that I needed to wear my clean suit.
Fortunately for us, I just picked mine up from the cleaners.
Bam! Let's go check out some cool space stuff. Barbara Lambert is a multimedia photographer for
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
She's here working in Cape Canaveral for an upcoming launch and agreed to show us around.
Barbara Lambert: Hey. Good morning, Chris.
Christopher Blair: Hello, Barbara. Thanks for meeting us again.
We really appreciate it and we're very excited that you're going to show us a NASA clean room.
And so, I even printed out my e-mail that would make me remember to bring my
clean suit that I picked up this morning from the cleaners.
Barbara Lambert: I think you misunderstood. I said you have to wear a clean suit.
Christopher Blair: Cleaner than this? I mean, it smells pretty good.
Barbara Lambert: I'll tell you what, I'll take you down to the gowning room and I'll show you what I mean.
Christopher Blair: OK. Well, that's great. I'll follow you
Barbara Lambert: OK. Christopher Blair: Thank you.
Barbara Lambert: OK. This is the gowning room. This is where the NASA scientists and
engineers come to get dressed before they go into the clean room.
Christopher Blair: OK. What's our first step?
Barbara Lambert: Well, the first thing you have to do -- you know, your shoes are pretty dirty right now.
So, we need you to go over to the clean station here and get your shoes clean.
Christopher Blair: OK. Clean my shoes, sounds good.
Oh, this is really neat. I bet teachers would love to have something like this in their classroom to keep the floors clean.
OK, great, Barbara, I believe my shoes are clean. So, what's the next step?
Barbara Lambert: Well, even though you used the shoe cleaner,
I still need you to step on the sticky mat just to get off all the extra dust and dirt.
Christopher Blair: OK. And you're right it's very sticky.
It's kind of like a glue trap for I guess maybe dirt and maybe gum on the bottom of my shoes.
Barbara Lambert: OK. Now we get to empty our pockets.
Christopher Blair: OK. What are we looking for? Barbara Lambert: Take everything out.
Christopher Blair: Everything?
Barbara Lambert: Cell phones.
Christopher Blair: No cell phones, OK. So, those go in here.
And I've got a few things. I travel heavy. I have my MP3 player. Barbara Lambert: No.
Christopher Blair: No MP3 player, all right. I also have a marker. Barbara Lambert: No.
Christopher Blair: Pencil? Barbara Lambert: No.
Christopher Blair: Come on. A hairbrush? Barbara Lambert: No.
Christopher Blair: A hairclip? Barbara Lambert: Absolutely not!
Christopher Blair: My keys? Barbara Lambert: No, they may transmit. You can't take them in.
Christopher Blair: How about the lipstick? You know what,
let's not worry about that. Barbara Lambert: Why do you have a lipstick?
Christopher Blair: It's OK. It's another story.
Barbara Lambert: OK. Well, you know, the lipstick brings up a good point.
You can't take lipstick, you can't take hairspray and you can't take cologne
because they can damage the sensitive instruments inside on the spacecraft.
Christopher Blair: OK. Well, that's a great tip. I appreciate that.
Barbara Lambert: OK. Let's move on. Christopher Blair: All right.
Barbara Lambert: Now, this is what I meant when I asked you to wear a clean suit.
Christopher Blair: OK, well, yeah. That's definitely different than the suit I have.
Barbara Lambert: Absolutely. The best thing to do is think about the clean room as being like an operating room.
Everything inside has to be squeaky clean to protect the instruments.
And just as doctors and nurses have to wear special garments when they go into an operating room to protect the patient,
we have to wear special clean room suits so the fibers and the dirt and the hair and
everything from your body don't get onto the instruments inside.
Christopher Blair: OK, great! Barbara Lambert: All right. Well, let's get dressed.
Christopher Blair: All right, thanks. Barbara Lambert: Well, after we finish putting on our gloves and our masks.
Christopher Blair: OK, I've got my gloves right here. Barbara Lambert: (Laughs) I'm sorry, but you look like a bunny.
Christopher Blair: A bunny? Is this a bunny suit? Is that why they call it a bunny suit?
Barbara Lambert: Yeah. That's why they call it a bunny suit.
Christopher Blair: It that a special pet name? Bunny... pet. Get it? Rim shot! Barbara Lambert: Very funny.
Christopher Blair: OK. I've got my gloves on, so what's the next step. Barbara Lambert: OK, we take a shower.
Christopher Blair: I just got dressed, Barbara! Are you serious? I shower?
I have to take everything off and take another shower?
Barbara Lambert: It's not that kind of a shower. It's an air shower.
Christopher Blair: An air shower. Yeah, my mom would have bought that! Yeah mom, I'm clean, I took an air shower!
Barbara Lambert: All right. Are you ready?
Christopher Blair: Sure, let's do this. OK. This is the infamous air shower. So, how does this work? Whoa!
Barbara Lambert: Now you feel the air. The air flows through these jets. There's vaccuum suction at the bottom,
so it's blowing off any extra hair or dirt or debris that might be on your garment. So, now you're squeaky clean!
Christopher Blair: I'm clean, so now I can see the cool space stuff. Let's go.
Barbara Lambert: Absolutely.
Christopher Blair: I couldn't help but feel important. Kind of like I had the right stuff as I walked into the clean room,
even though I was specifically told by Barbara several times, 'Don't touch anything.' OK, Barbara.
That was really interesting. It's cool to see how much work it takes just to get into the facility,
without even having to work on the spacecraft yet. Wow.
Barbara Lambert: Yeah, a lot of people don't realize how much work is involved to manage a spacecraft in a clean room.
Christopher Blair: Well, sure. This is NASA, so we actually have a lot of work going on.
So, now that we're done, do we just take these off and throw them in the garbage?
Barbara Lambert: Oh, absolutely not. We recycle everything and these gowns have to go to a special cleaning facility.
Christopher Blair: Oh, well I have the number for my cleaners. I'm sure I have that business card on me. Will that work?
Barbara Lambert: No, no. I said special cleaning facility.
Christopher Blair: Oh, special cleaning. OK. Well, let's get these off then. Barbara Lambert: OK.
Christopher Blair: Well, thanks Barbara. That was really great. I appreciate you taking the time to
show us how a clean suit and a clean room are used when we deal with NASA spacecraft.
Barbara Lambert: Sure, no problem Chris. Glad to help you. You know, it's part of
NASA's mission to work with students and teachers to help improve education.
Christopher Blair: Well, that's great because this is an educational show. So, I'll make sure I remember that.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it very much.
Barbara Lambert: You're welcome, call me anytime.
Christopher Blair: I will, thank you. Bye bye. And thank you for joining us today.
There are so many cool things to see at NASA and here at the Kennedy Space Center.
I wonder where we should go next.