The Rubber Room: NASA's Most Protected Room Futurezone.at

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The Rubber Room: NASA's best-hidden room

The room is underground and should provide sufficient protection in case of emergency.

O Saturn V NASA is the one who so far most powerful rocket, which transported people into space. If something goes wrong during the launch of this huge monster, it could result in a huge explosion come over.

The US space agency introduced this to some people security challenge: How can you evacuate workers or crew as quickly as possible in the event of an explosion?

What to do in an emergency?

To simply run away or with a vehicle to escape, NASA deemed it impossible. Finally, they counted on it fire ballwhich has a diameter of at least 430 meters and temperatures up to 1,370 degrees Celsius Reached.

So they decided to build a Bunker below the starting platform: The so-called Rubber Room. This isolated room was designed to withstand an explosion similar to an atomic bomb.

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The Rubber Room

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The shelter

The bunker complex was located 12 meters under Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39 – a bunker below each of the two launch pads. With the help of a 68 meter long slide The workers managed to reach the room in just a few seconds.

The real shelter could be through a thick door It can be achieved. This room was circular, the floor was made of driftwood concrete and got up impact absorbers. Below the dome was Seatingto which workers could tie themselves.

The protective layer of the rubber room must be round 3,400kPa withstand – about 270 kPa is already fatal for humans. Furthermore, the space for an acceleration of 75G designed. There was space for even 20 people and an oxygen supply of up to 24 hours.

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Now under monument protection

The exit was through a 360 meter long tunnel. There was also a case this path was blocked by the explosion Emergency exit at the top of the dome. Fortunately, no one ever had to seriously seek shelter there.

After the end of the Apollo program, the two bunker systems were forgotten. O flora It is fauna from subtropical Florida invaded the rooms. As EspaçoX rented the launch complex in 2014, the company was forced to use the shelters as historical artifacts to obtain.