All language subtitles for Building Stuff; Inventing New Ways to Explore ¦ Full Documentary ¦ NOVA ¦ PBS (1080p_30fps_H264-128kbit_AAC).inglés

[Music]

we live in a built

World engineering and Technology built

upon Innovations and inventions

stretching back thousands of years some

of our Creations like machines boost our

body's abilities others help us reach

outside our comfort zones we have left

an indelible mark on the planet and now

the time has come to use our skills to

Make a Better

World building taller

buildings that stay steady in the wind

as Extreme as this feels this is nothing

compared to what the building is

designed

for or submarines that dive deep imagine

a craft that allows you to explore a

part of our world that you simply

couldn't see any other

way to give an unprecedented underwater

view it's like being in a goldfish Bowl

only the fish are on the outside and the

people are on the

inside clothes that let us go farther to

places we never could

before or even a new

structure to replace the International

Space Station we can put three floors

inside this have up to six people live

for months on months

building

stuff reach it right now on

[Music]

Nova as an American based supplier to

the construction industry carile is

committed to developing a diverse

workplace that supports our employees

advancement into the next generation of

leaders from the manufacturing floor to

the front office learn more at

[Music]

car.com

humans unlike a lot of other animals

we're not exactly fit to thrive in the

wild we lack fur to protect us from

cold and speed to out run

Predators exposed to the elements many

of us would struggle to survive but

luckily we have other strengths

engineering is all around us and we

often don't recognize it one of the

things that engineering lets us do is to

do things that we can't do with our

bodies ever since our ancestors first

evolved humankind has refused to stay

put humans are infinitely adaptable we

live All Around the World in different

climates and conditions engineering has

made that

possible I think it's in human nature to

solve problems and solving problems the

basis for

engineering btic tanks we've learned how

to compensate for our

vulnerabilities by building

stuff and reaching to every imaginable

[Music]

Place we've been building Skyward for

thousands of

years from Raising huge Stone monuments

to building massive

pyramids to framing today's Mega tall

skyscrapers million dollar

view each step higher presents new

engineering

challenges Chicago storyed Michigan

Avenue towering over 800 ft is 1, 000 m

a 73 story skyscraper under construction

along the city's

Lakefront where it will be fully exposed

to the city's notorious winds you can

see some pretty decent wind loads so we

have some unique conditions

here each building is unique and it's

kind of its own recipe that gets put

together Chicago is often considered the

birthplace of the

skyscraper the home insurance building

constructed in

1885 is widely considered to be the

first skyscraper though only 10 stories

tall over the decades Engineers have

relied on a blend of Art and Science to

cope with

wind not only are you considering the

wind as it is naturally occurring in

that space But you take a a City like

Chicago in which there are several other

tall buildings you have to design not

just for how the wind would naturally

occur but for how the wind would also be

altered by the tall buildings around it

the strongest wind David Fields is the

chief structural engineer at

1,000m in our modern era we're seeing

buildings get taller and taller and more

and more slender this is pushing the

Ragged edge of structural engineering

and what can be built and what can cost

effective David is responsible for

ensuring the structure's strength and

integrity and of all the forces that can

damage a skyscraper wind is one of the

biggest

threats not only to the structural

Integrity of a building but to its very

livability as well it can make people

physically ill with a kind of high-rise

seasickness it's a problem that only

became apparent as tall build buildings

evolved from heavy structures like the

Empire State

Building to today's lighter steel-framed

buildings like

1000m originally designed by the late

architect helmet Yan Now overseen by

architect Linda

dossy architecture is a balance between

Beauty and function we are hired to

solve a problem and solve it beautifully

the ultimate goal is to deliver a

feasible functional building looking at

our structural plan we can see I think

of Structural Engineering as designing

the bones within a body we think about

where to put a core where to put bracing

and that happens very very early and it

shapes fundamentally almost everything

within the building I think you gave us

an extra few feet Structural Engineers

and Architectural engineers in in some

ways they're cut from the same cloth we

do push on them a lot to try and Achieve

our aesthetic goals

but at the same time we have a a

responsibility to safety and

comfort so why is wind such a

problem as wind blows on a building at

low speeds it tends to approach a

building and wrap around it smoothly as

the wind blows faster and faster it

starts to Eddy on the back side as Wind

Blows even faster those edies we call

them bices they peel off they peel off

the building rhythmically and kind of

kind of side to side this gets a

building rocking and swaying at high

wind

speeds if you're building a rental

building if you're building a Condo

building these are people's homes they

live in them and you want them to feel

as comfortable there as they would

anywhere

else all right well here we are top of

the

building luckily there is an ingenious

engineering solution under construction

here on the top floor

two large concrete boxes called Mass

dampers both will be filled with water

to suppress building sway as wind pushes

the building in One Direction the water

with all its weight sloshes in the

opposite

direction this counterbalancing motion

dampens or offsets the sway of the

building here we have a demonstration of

tuned slashing dampers we have two

frames that have effectively the same

natural

frequency now on top of these we'll put

two identical damper

boxes we'll fill one with just the right

amount of

water and we'll see both how much less

it sways and how much quicker the

swaying

stops the box with water settles faster

than the box without water what works

here is exactly the same that works here

a much larger scale the two large damper

tanks are located north and south of the

building's concrete

core to help combat frequent intense

winds at high

altitude the tanks are 40 ft long 10 ft

wide and 15 ft tall and will hold up to

11 ft of water about 33,000 gallons each

which is only about

0.2% of the mass of the building itself

[Music]

self so this big box it's basically a

swimming pool the water pressure will

try to push it outward that's why we

have rebar very densely all throughout

these walls next comes the outer form

work when complete the construction

workers will pour concrete between the

forms to make the walls looks like the

guys are working with more urgency now

that the forms are going up everybody

knows they got to get their part done

and although the construction team is

very experienced people can still make

mistakes fortunately we caught an issue

just before the formwork went up at the

bottom of the tank where the water

pressure is greatest we have major

piping coming through the wall the

builders failed to install critical

rebar at the weak point in the tank wall

created by the piping the guys are

solving the issue this is happening

about 5 minutes before the formwork

closes things up this never would have

been seen if we weren't here

[Music]

embedding steel bars reinforces the

concrete concrete is very strong in

compression but it's brittle steel is

flexible so combining the materials

creates a structure both strong and

resistant to

failure he's going to have 24 in of

unreinforced concrete so we had them

come and trim it out having the

engineers on site is critical because

they have

very in-depth knowledge obviously in the

structural design this way if there are

any issues that arise those things can

be mitigated up front very quickly uh

and it makes everyone's J that much

easier with the damper tank mold now

fully

constructed it's time to pour the walls

then just as the poor is

ending a storm rolls into

Chicago it's the perfect opportunity to

get a benchmark reading of how much the

building sways before the dampers are

filled with

water David holds a monitor connected to

an electronic motion sensor called an

accelerometer

it's attached to the building and

reports sway measured in fractions of G

Earth's gravity

force so we're taking our first

frequency measurements of the building

as Extreme as this feels the wind the

rain the thunder and lightning we're

seeing and hearing this is nothing

compared to what the building is

designed for the building's moving we're

reading four Mill right now these are

our first Dynamic measurements we'll

take these back to the office decide how

much water put in the tank and then

we're tuned

using water to stabilize sway has roots

in the

1800s when it was discovered that ships

can achieve greater stability by pumping

water ballast into the

hull the amount of water can be easily

adjusted as it's readily available at

Sea it's very much to engineer's

advantage to think back on how other

Solutions and other accomplishments and

achievements in the past

can perhaps serve as starting points or

even informers for what we are trying to

do today all design is redesign so if

you think about it you're taking things

that have existed in the past but you're

making them incrementally better um you

thought about it in a new way or you're

bring in a new technology that didn't

exist

before when 1,000m is nearly finished

David returns to tune the damper making

a final decision about exactly how much

water to put in the tanks so today's is

the culmination of 6 years of planning

and coordination and engineering and

we'll finally see exactly how much water

to tune it and damp it so it's

comfortable for everyone who will live

here all right here we

go I'll go check the

inflow water's flowing

in it's very exciting it means we're

getting close to the end it's just a

milestone moment so we're turning on our

application right now we have an

accelerometer this is very sensitive so

even on a modestly windy day like today

we know exactly the Motions we're

getting to micro G's you know these are

tiny percentages of the acceleration of

gravity last time we took readings we

were seeing roughly four milles today

we're down closer to one half of Mill

part of that's a function of the tanks

being filled part of that's a function

of it's a less windy day to begin with

by tomorrow morning when the tanks are

full we should see the building sway

being about half of what it would

otherwise

be that's one hell of a view that is

[Music]

incredible it's views like

this that reveal just how extensively

Humanity has developed the

land yet over 80% of the ocean remain

unexplored and

untouched there's a reason for that of

all the environments that support life

on our planet the most forbidding and

remote are the Deep Oceans Where the

furthest reaches lie more than 6 miles

below the waves our ocean is the basis

for life on this rock and we are

impacting it in ways we don't even begin

to understand and the first step is

always exploration

the more you understand the ocean the

more you love the ocean the more you're

fascinated by it the more you'll fight

to protect

[Music]

it urgency to combat climate change here

we go has spurred new efforts to explore

ocean

depths sub is extremely

manuverable imagine a craft that allows

you to explore a part of our world that

you simply couldn't see any other way

engineering a safe submarine is

extremely

challenging and mistakes can be

fatal catastrophic implosion the

unthinkable became all too real in 2023

the world was horrified by the implosion

of the Ocean Gate Titan submersible that

was on an expedition to explore the

Titanic the disaster killed five people

including ocean Gate's co-founder

Stockton Rush have been safely down to

the Titanic recite 33 times and to me

the idea that that lives could be

claimed by an implosion in this day and

age is almost unfathomable it was a bad

idea and they were warned the carbon

fiber used in the hoe may have been a

critical fail point the material is

prone to buckling Under

Pressure especially when combined with

the elongated pill shape

but that was the Titan not to be

confused with the Triton

submersible being manufactured in

Sebastian

Florida Triton's design approach is

rigorous here Engineers are building

Subs designed to take

non-specialists hundreds and even

thousands of feet below the surface

safely Patrick lahy is the co-founder of

Triton submarines

safety begins with design it carries all

the way through to the selection of

materials the formation of those

materials into Parts those parts made up

into assemblies those assemblies then

tested and validated on their own then

incorporated into the complete vehicle

which is then tested

again if you're an engineer it is your

responsibility to do things in a manner

such that the end product is safe

because at the end of the day people are

relying on you to make a safe

product alt together their subs have

logged tens of thousands of hours

underwater without any

incident increasingly the vehicles are

being used for scientific research film

making and underwater

exploration so this is our most compact

threers sub pilot sits in the back two

passengers in the front they have this

incredible completely unobstructed View

from this acrylic pressure

boundary the pressure boundary is a

perfectly round plastic orb that is

transparent it's like being in a

goldfish Bowl only the fish are on the

outside and the people are on the inside

and it's

invisible you really feel like you're a

part of the

ocean the boundaries main job is to keep

occupants safe from the crushing water

pressure pushing in from all sides

a sphere is one of the strongest shapes

in nature a spherical Hull experiences

the same amount of pressure at every

point on its surface minimizing the

chances of structural

failure so far the only Subs that have

made it to the bottom of the Mariana

Trench more than 6 Mi below the surface

carried their passengers in spherical

enclosures and all were made of metal

like steel or titanium

test test we good on audio you're

getting a good film director and Ocean

Explorer James Cameron who is an

investor in Triton wants more people to

experience the Deep the way he has the

goal of Triton Subs is to make the best

commercial which also means scientific

Subs in the world and to make them

widely available in 2019 a Triton

titanium spheric enclosure sub completed

one of the most ambitious Global

Expeditions in modern history taking

people numerous times to the deepest

spot in each of Earth's five oceans

07 at including the Challenger Deep in

Mariana

Trench the geometry of a sphere limits

its usable

space the designers wanted to increase

the number of passengers beyond what a

sphere could reasonably hold so they

settled on an elongated

shape made from a common yet deceptively

strong

material

acrylic acrylic is an incredible

material it's completely transparent

unlike glass where even after 6 in

you're starting to see quite significant

discoloration increasing the thickness

of the acrylic increases its strength

and ability to resist the pressure of

the water while retaining

visibility it's completely different

from anything that's preceded it we

wanted to be able to put the most people

into the smallest volume possible when

it's complete this sub will hold up to

nine people including a pilot they call

it Ava it's designed to safely dive

depths of up to 600 ft the unusual shape

is the work of engineering firm dark

ocean and their principal designer John

Ramsey to accommodate nine passengers

it's incredibly difficult to do that in

a in a traditional sphere the way the

669 ARA works is it it just takes that

sphere and it optimizes it for the

passengers Inside by stretching it out

and allowing everyone to sit side by

side down into world's never before seen

this design draws from Decades of

research on acrylics

there's an 800 page kind of Bible of

submersible acrylics and you can go

through and see every bit of testing

that was done the material that makes is

possible is acrylic

plastic everything you do in engineering

is based on what other Engineers before

you have done if somebody's got a great

elegant solution why reinvent the

wheel at the factory the team is

attempting to attach Ava's pressure h H

to its steel chassis they've never had

to maneuver a shape like this okay uh

Chris bring yours up a little

bit one slip and the acrylic could be

damaged or scratched 1 2 3 this corner

the team positions the metal chassis

beneath the elliptical Hull it needs to

go towards you a little bit Monroe she

is such a l ready one

that doesn't look bad let's just keep a

little bit of tension on it yeah it has

tension so despite the best efforts of

the engineers all there we go all right

there are still small adjustments to be

made so we're trying to thread in this

big pin now some of the bits of machine

to within a 10th of millim or less to to

get that nice fit come back Monroe a

little bit whoa whoa wo go hold

attention it's slipping all

right give me a freaking heart

attack I mean it's so freaking

close it's not going to go anywhere

right now so just come down on your

forks Monroe okay tilt

forward okay back up the acrylic Hull is

secure for the moment but they'll have

to stop for the day to tweak the size of

the

screws does it always go according to

plan no am I really pleased with how far

we've got today oh

yes when we're solving problems when

we're building things we're engag in

this process of getting our hands dirty

and actually doing some trial and error

testing and see if what we've we've

built was effective if it

worked testing needs to be particularly

rigorous when lives are at stake you are

implicitly relying on the people who

designed it and built it to make sure

that they've thought about how it can

fail and they they've come up with ways

to get around that today every new

vehicle be it a car airplane or

submarine is subjected to thorough

testing and review throughout the

Engineering

Process the true Testament to its

reliability ultimately hinges on

obtaining certification from an

independent third

party they make sure that your

assumptions are not flawed that you're

not doing something that could be

dangerous that it complies with an

internationally recognized set of

rules the failed Titan submersible was

never officially

certified if you're putting passengers

on a sub you need it to be qualified by

some independent body whose job it is to

make sure that that vehicle is safe

[Music]

if there's any water Ingress in there we

are going to try toch the Ava sub is now

ready for its first dive senior approval

engineer ionel Dari is on site today for

final checks of all the sub's vital

systems making sure the submersible is

safe for passenger Dives down to 600 ft

everything went great we can issue the

final certificate for this

imers after getting the green light the

sub is ready to make a shallow

[Music]

dive all right topid top

sides hat is closed life support is on

and good Roger you have permission to

drive

way our

[Music]

way amazing I mean this is the first

time I've been down and it's been um 2

and 1 half years of work this is the

result and it's a magnificent one really

loving

this if Triton is able to fulfill its

mission of building more

submersibles many others will will soon

be able to have their first ride into

the deep

ocean this is this other universe that

is most of our planet and it's such a

magical

place and to be able to now explore it

in Comfort is a phenomenal ability that

is open to more and more people right

that be on the

[Music]

our inventions can act as force fields

between our bodies and the

environment protecting us from

extremes you can see them all around us

what we live in what we move in and even

what we

[Music]

wear at a textile research laboratory in

North

Carolina Engineers are preparing to set

a mannequin on

[Music]

fire their goal collect data that will

help make safer firefighting

suits and researchers are also focused

on finding solutions for women

firefighters who often struggle to work

in suits typically designed for

men what we do can be life saving

so there are no higher Stakes than that

textiles are the unsung heroes of the

world

period as firefighters battle flames and

smoke their clothing and gear is the

first line of defense but their suits

can also contribute to a hidden danger

heat stress when the body's core

temperature and heart rate rise to

unsafe

levels about 40% of work-related

firefighter deaths are the result of

cardiac incidents due to heat

stress the big question how can we keep

firefighters safe from flames and keep

their body temperatures within the suit

from rising to heat stress

levels for decades Roger Barker and his

team have been building new instruments

and test methods to measure both thermal

protection and

comfort an earlier iteration of their

mannequin couldn't move

[Music]

in a real life situation a firefighter

would almost never be

stationary after 3 years of development

researchers are ready to light up their

moving

mannequin Power It Up

[Music]

John thermal sensors throughout its body

allow them to study how heat is

transferred or blocked by the clothing

and if this motion creates new avenues

for hot air to enter and move inside the

suit so now we're seeing the combined

effects of the flame and the stresses

that'll be generated as the dynamic

Powerman moves their arms and their

legs with mannequin simulations they can

predict how long it will take for a

firefighter to sustain

Burns they also test for seams breaking

open fabric ruptures and the effects of

garment fit and Design

the tough outer shell protects against

flame and abrasions the middle layer is

a moisture barrier that keeps liquids

from penetrating the suit the innermost

layer resists any remaining heat that

gets through the first two

layers this system offers High

protection up to a

point a proper fit and design also play

a protective

role trying to create that Optimum

balance between protection and comfort

for all firefighters is so important and

for women in the field in particular an

ill-fitting suit designed for a man can

put them at higher risk of injury while

on the job the fabric on its own isn't

going to save you it can be the most

engineered upto-date

Advanced composite fabric but how it's

put together how it's worked around the

body the fit every kind of material

aspect of how that fabric is used that

is going to really make it an effective

technology today there are about 90,000

women in the fire surface in the United

States 80% report that their gear does

not fit properly they are doing the

exact same actions same motions as their

male counterparts so you know they

should have something that actually

works for them the goal for This

research team is to develop and design a

prototype suit made specifically for

female

firefighters the a large majority of

firefighting PPE on the market today is

made with a male body and mind and it's

patterned in that way there is sizing

for women but that sizing is not always

achieved by initially starting from a

female

pattern women also vary more in shape

than men do males are a little bit more

up and down while females have curves

because of the hips and the bust areas

I've always had an issue with the fit of

my jacket needing more space up in the

chest area in order to accommodate women

will often be given larger jackets

whenever you go up in sizing for jacket

it makes down here larger as well um so

you know you got the good mobility and

fit up here but then sometimes down here

you're going to have some extra fabric

so we're really t tailored fit is

important it's critical for their

Mobility for their Vision it's also

critical in terms of heat

stress an oversized garment creates

thicker air gaps increasing insulation

and potential protection from outside

heat but larger air gaps also restrict

the firefighter's ability to lose body

heat to the outside environment trapping

heat inside the

suit we've had female firefighters say

that the collars on their jacket are

really tall the length of it rising up

from the collar bone and how much it

takes up your neck if you're a smaller

stature female firefighter that can be

problematic because when you're wearing

your SCBA mask your helmet you really

start liotine mobility and if even the

air pack itself my helmet barely hits it

so it's hard to look up so you can see

what's going on above you imagine you're

in a fire you have everything sort of

caught here at your neck you're putting

yourself at higher risk for injury

because of your minimized range of

motion protecting the body from the

elements is a Pursuit as old as we

[Music]

are the history of clothing is also a

history of the relationship between

people and their

environments although humans started off

taking the skins of other animals and

putting them on their skin once they

discovered how you can use plant fibers

to make first of all string and thread

and then weave that together and make

fabric fabrics have always kind of

started and then inspired uh new types

of Innovations and

Technologies like the invention of the

eyed needle the first ones were made of

bone and once you have this concept of

bringing two things together a whole lot

of engineering possibilities open up to

you

it gives us seams it gives us tight

seams which means you can start to think

about having things waterproof or

windproof or even fire

resistant earlier firefighter suits were

made of wool chosen for its natural

flame

resistance today's suit offers much

better protection from fire but it's not

as breathable meaning body heat can get

trapped more easily than it did with

wool firefighting is physically

demanding work you're working hard

you're entering a a hot environment you

know you create all these microclimates

inside your

suit working at high levels of exertion

if their body traps too much heat they

may be subject to heat stroke or even

worse cardiac

events one of the ways our bodies try to

cool down is by sweating but that only

works if the sweat can

evaporate a suit's ability to release

heat is measured with this female

mannequin named

Liz she sweats through nearly 100 pores

designed to mimic human perspiration

when clothed in firefighter gear and

made to move in a hot environment

sensors can detect where the hot spots

are where the clothing is not allowing

evaporation to occur or the heat to be

released shown here in red and where

heat is escaping more efficiently

cooling the body shown in blue for Liz

her torso chest and hips are retaining

the most

heat to make protective garments

specifically for the female form the

research team will need a whole new set

of

measurements to make new patterns one

we're in the process of collecting

anthropometric data on hopefully as many

female figh Fighters as we can

anthropometric data is information about

the body's shape and proportions you're

going to do a front shot and it's going

to ask you to turn to the side so the

team is using three methods to collect

the measurements please move feed

slightly further apart first a remote

scanning application well done your body

scan is complete second a 3D

scanner finally hand measurements for

verification

33.2 they will turn the patterns into

fire suit

mockups then the next goal of our

research is to develop those into

wearable prototypes which we then plan

to

Pilot Fabrics are one of the many things

that are taken for granted in our Modern

Life that this piece of fabric was

engineered we think of it as a shirt

your t-shirt is

engineered one major leap was the

transition from natural fibers like Silk

and cotton to synthetics

before World War II most parachutes were

made of silk silk is very light but it's

very strong that's why it was used for

parachutes but in

1935 a new textile was invented at

Dupont a chemical company so they

developed this new material called a

polyamide which we now know as

nylon nylon with other synthetics

eventually made it possible for us to

walk on the moon and all along the way

women were helping us to reach greater

and greater

[Music]

Heights so Sophia can come out now there

may be some holes in their arm having a

group of women that really understand

the female body is so important in the

work that we're doing we all come at the

problem with different perspectives

different backgrounds different areas of

expertise

the other thing that really keeps us in

it is the enthusiasm of all the female

firefighters wow yeah cuz once they get

it they're like oh yes you know now I

can actually speak up I can be heard and

I can be acknowledged this scan looks

like it came through really well it's an

iterative process we are constantly

going to have to make changes as we

continue getting that out to the

firefighting community and you know as

long as there's some level of acceptance

I mean we'll slowly be I think moving in

the right direction of s of implementing

you know change for the

[Music]

better woven fabrics can be engineered

to protect here on Earth but what about

in one of the most challenging

environments of

all the harsh vacuum of outer

space when Cruz first occupied the

International Space Station in 20 2000

it marked the beginning of over 20 years

of continual human residence in

space but NASA plans to retire and

deorbit the station in the

2030s The Hope is that it will be

replaced and then

some we're going back to space to stay

we've proven that we can live in space

for long periods in the International

Space Station and now we're pushing the

envelope

again a variety of of companies are

eager to join this new phase of space

habitation which holds promise for

scientific

breakthroughs it's really Sierra space's

mission to fill that Gap fill that void

have an opportunity to have a platform

in

space NASA contracted Sierra space to

develop a new generation of inflatable

habitats designed and built to allow

humans to live and work in space as well

as on the moon and eventually on

Mars the habitat is called life for

large integrated flexible

environment today's engineering

challenge is to destroy it we're at

Marshall space flight

center for today's event we're doing

what's called an ultimate burst test

we're going to take this article and

we're going to pressurize it until it

fails huge explosion equal to 150 sticks

of dinos

it's going to be

epic they are in the exciting process of

watching their program intentionally

fail they're in that learning mode where

you know they go out and say we're going

to blow this thing

up one unique feature of the life

habitat is that it can be compressed to

fit into a single Rocket's payload

housing and then inflated by a factor of

six when deployed in space

you have these goals of going to the

moon or going to Mars a lot of focus is

being there not everyone's thinking

about actually living there and so this

is where we start to fill in those

gaps the life article is 300 cubic M we

can put three floors inside this have up

to six people live inside this for

months on

months at the core of the life habitats

technology are what are known as soft

goods flexible immensely strong

materials that can be tightly packed

down and then

inflated the life habitat is made up of

four different layers each with its own

purpose such as holding in air providing

insulation and repelling dangerous

microm meteorites which can travel at

tens of thousands of miles per hour and

are common in outer

space but the most critical layer of the

life habitat is the restraint layer or

primary structural shell which the

company is testing here the restraint

layer is composed of hand sewn pieces of

fabric made of high strength synthetic

Space Age material called

vectran vectran is a chemically spun

material made to be harder than steel so

it comes in a thread and then that

thread is woven into a strap you could

hang seven cars on this strap and that

strap would never break

like so many modern Technologies at its

core the habitat and its vectran webbing

depend on age-old knowledge in this case

on the Art and Science of making baskets

out of plant

fibers when you're designing structural

systems you don't start from scratch and

basket weaving has been around for

thousands of years but we've applied it

so you can use it in

space today's test is crucial for

assessing how the life habitat manages

the air pressure introduced in

space at sea level on Earth the average

air pressure is around 15 psi PB per

square

in that's the normal pressure that will

fill the

habitat however the structure has to

withstand significantly higher pressures

to prevent any risk of a disastrous

explosion that's where today's test

comes

in human are very squishy and they don't

play well outside of their own

environment being Earth so when a new

habitat is developed a lot of

intentionality goes into it so that the

human body is not exposed to things like

radiation extreme temperatures lack of

oxygen and anything that could be flying

around out there in

space the life habitat is following the

NASA guidelines for operating pressure

safety which is a times 4 safety Factor

so we have a 15.2 PSI operating pressure

we times that by four it gives us a 60.8

to reach the desired pressure of 60.8

PSI the habitat will be connected to air

pumps regulated by valves controlling

the flow of air the team will monitor

the habitat's inflation from a control

room more than a/4 mile

away we have sensors on the top and the

bottom of the article which are going to

give us what we call strain data all

those thousands and thousands of data

points our analysts are going to take

and take a look at it so we can validate

on Earth how our modules operate along

with validating it in

space today's test will be the first

ever of such a large inflatable

structure but the team has already done

several smaller burst

tests you want to build articles fast

test get that

data prior to this we did four articles

which gave us that data to catapult us

and give us the confidence to go into

our first full scale

burst Central to the habitat concept by

NASA and Sierra space is the vision that

multiple structures can be sent into

space gradually and linked together like

buildings along a city block modularity

is key to this concept you have a

modular design that you can configure

any way you need to you're going to have

a medical facility you're going to have

exercise you're going to have place for

people to live to enjoy themselves in

space as the team prepares for the

evening's burst test Beth lioli makes

her final checks on the life habitat's

vast array of wires and sensors we're

pretty much Looking ready for

burst safely watching from the control

room the team monitors the test in front

of a dozen screens that will capture the

burst so right now we're inside the test

room and we're taking a look at what is

happening on the screens and we're

preparing everything for the test rain

sight's been closed down um everything

is good to go the habitat sits out under

the lights at one PSI but that soon

changes we are pressurizing to 15 psi

for a 5minute hold oh you can hear it

yeah go

time fill rate uh 3.0 6 PSI per minute

35 PSI 35 PSI all right on the way to

burst here we go let's do this but about

half an hour into the test something is

going wrong the flow of air has started

to slow slowing down but the team still

hopes they can meet their goal got to

hit 61 call 61 okay

61 this is where it get

dicey hearing a little movement come on

I need second

now 61 PSI 61 PSI well

done fantastic let's keep going though

that is amazing they've reached NASA's

Target PSI but the habitat is not

filling as fast as expected are we

fighting it now yeah oh my gosh yeah one

potential explanation a

leak that could be disastrous in

space still

dropping yeah about an hour into the

test they decide to end it short of

their ultimate goal you good with

r311 closed yes okay r31 close it let it

leak down the lack of an explosion is a

major

disappointment testing to failure is

crucial to understanding the habitat's

ability to withstand

pressure after the habitat is De pressed

ized and safe the team gathers to

determine the source of the

leak all those straps want to be aligned

with the bottom of the plate so there

there is nothing pushing on that bladder

or doing anything I would I would highly

doubt that there's a leak right there

okay there's an air of excitement and

then there's air of like ah I wanted a

big burst you know you want to take it

to that failure this valve seems like

our culprit we over pressurized it as

air pressure built up in the the valve

it overcame the force of the spring

holding it closed allowing air to escape

when we found out that it was the valve

a little bit of a sense of relief you

know knowing that the design of the

structure was very viable they decide to

shut the problem valve off fortunately

the remaining working valve is still

able to inflate the

habitat the following night the group is

back in the control room 25 PSI 25 psi

get our fill rate 2922 2922 PSI per

minute ramp to

burst just keep going 55 Psi

Psi 63 PSI 63

PSI they've reached the same pressure as

the failed test the night

before going the burst and it keeps

Rising 70 PSI 70 PSI PSI 76 PSI this is

insane that's insane I heard a little

[Applause]

pop well done

guys this is the first one that we could

really feel the ground shake in this

control room which is incredible to see

it to really be here uh it's kind of

surreal and now they know the habitat's

limit 77

PSI it was just an amazing moment it's

one of those things you don't forget in

your career and you always talk about

it we're constantly on the

Move expand our reach upward outward and

toward New Horizons engineering is a

process you take the Baton and continue

to engineer our world and to build

things further bigger better more

efficient and more valuable the whole

Human Experience you could say is an

experiment in engineering of a society

that's better and and that's why

everything that we do is built upon what

has been done in the past throughout

history we've never been content to stay

put engineering is not a modern day

thing engineering is something that

expanded way into our past and I think

it comes from Curiosity it comes from

the need for survival 1 2 3 as we

continue building on what has come

before who knows what will innovate next

when we look at our lives and we look at

technology 100 years ago versus now we

couldn't imagine some of the things that

we see

today building stuff to reach be on

[Music]

[Music]