On May 31, 2008 when I was home for a little vacation, my grandma, sister, and I decided to go to the NASA Plum Brook Station facility tour.  As part of the 50th anniversary of Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center (the center that oversees our local Plum Brook Station), an open house was held on May 31 and June 1.  It was the first time that Plum Brook was open to the public since 1989!

 

A little background info:

 

NASA Plum Brook (named for the creek that flows through the property) is a 6400-acre reserve that is fenced off in an area between Sandusky and Milan (those using US Route 250 from the Turnpike to Cedar Point have probably noticed a large-domed building on the west side of the road); it is literally a large void in the center of Erie County that cuts off north-south and east-west roads.  Traveling in this area means driving around the large tract of land (adding 15 or so minutes to what would have been a direct route); even railroad tracks are diverted around this space.  See this aerial map (zoom out, too): http://www.mapquest.com/mq/7-VrGM

 

The 6400-acres was blocked off in the 1940's, I believe, to become an ammunitions production facility for World War II.  Sometime in the late 1950's or early 1960's the land was converted to use by NASA.  Plum Brook Station is home to the Space Power Facility, Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, Hypersonic Tunnel Facility, Cryogenic Propulsion Test Facility, and hundreds of underground bunkers with classified information (and maybe aliens, the tour guide said  :roll: )

History: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/pbrf/fact-sheets/nasa%20history%20fact.pdf

 

Anyway, living no more than 7 or 8 miles from this facility my entire life, it was a great experience to finally be able to see it in person!  Apparently the attendance was in the thousands; as evidenced by the fact that we had to park in the Kalahari Waterpark and take a shuttle bus over to the reserve. 

 

Without further ado, here are the pics (we were on a tour bus and it was hard to take good pics in motion and with a glass window  :x ); however, we were able to get out of the bus a few times!  Enjoy!

 

 

One of the office buildings was set up as a museum and was quite informative:

 

 

Driving by the Hypersonic Tunnel Facility:

 

 

Inside the Space Power Facility and Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility building:

 

SPRF under construction to test rocket vibrations for the upcoming Mars missions:

 

 

 

Heading into the Space Power Facility (the largest vacuum/space simulation chamber in the world, with a 120-ft tall dome and and a surface area of over 1-acre):

 

 

 

 

The chamber:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three railroad spurs run into the building:

 

An adjoining room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Outside the Space Power Facility:

 

 

 

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Hope you enjoyed!  Pictures do not do this place justice!  I cannot believe such a world class facility is right in my backyard!  NASA Plum Brook is an asset to the Sandusky area and tech-job growth is a necessity for the local economy, something which NASA intends to do.  And as cheesy as it may sound, Ohio really does have so much to discover!

My digital camera also records video; I move the camera around a lot (don't get motion sickness LOL)!

 

Thanks~

wow very cool thread.

 

i used to drive by plum brook and wondered about it. very glad to see nasa continues to invest in it.

Very cool pix - wish i could have made it there as my uncle worked there for many years and they never had open houses to let us see what he did for a living.